Super Typhoon Haiyan - Aftermath.... [Archive]

Terpe

9th November 2013, 09:43

Tacloban devastated; at least 100 dead

http://static.rappler.com/images/typhoon-yolanda-tacloban-20131109-005.jpg
A general shot shows houses destroyed by the strong winds caused by typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) at Tacloban, eastern island of Leyte on November 9, 2013

The outside world is slowly getting an idea of the extent of damage left in the wake of Typhoon Yolanda (international codename Haiyan), with reports of roughly a hundred dead and extensive damage to infrastructure.

Capt John Andrews, Deputy Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), told dzMM that he got reports of roughly 100 people presumed dead, "and that's only the count of bodies on the streets."

"This report was relayed to us by our station manager so it is considered very reliable information," he told the station. The information was relayed by high-frequency radio to authorities.

Of the region, Philippine Red Cross chief Gwendolyn Pang told Agence France-Presse, "We have reports of collapsed buildings, houses flattened to the ground, storm surges and landslides."

"But we don't know really, we can't say how bad the damage is... hopefully today we can get a better picture as to the effects of the super typhoon," Pang added.

Guiuan, a fishing town of about 40,000 people on Samar, was the first to be hit after Haiyan swept in from the Pacific Ocean. Pang said contact had not yet been made with Guiuan.

She also said relief workers were trying reach Capiz province, about 200 kilometers west of Tacloban, on Panay island where she said most of the region's infrastructure had been destroyed.

Tacloban is Eastern Visayas' regional administrative center, and the capital of Leyte, a province of at least 2 million people.

Completely ruined' airport

http://static.rappler.com/images/typhoon-yolanda-tacloban-20131109-004.jpg
A man searches for salvageable materials among debris of his destroyed house near Tacloban Airport, eastern island of Leyte on November 9, 2013

Andews also said, "According to the station manager the airport is completely ruined."

Andrews also told dzMM that clearing operations at the Tacloban City airport began at 5 am after airport operations there were completely down. "The news I received is there was nothing left of the Tacloban airport but the runway," he said.

Andrews later recounted the assessment of the airport manager to the Agence France-Presse, saying, "The terminal, the tower, including communication equipment, were destroyed."

Rappler's Rupert Ambil, who arrived at the Daniel Z. Romualdez airport, reported a lack of public transportation for relief workers. This forces everyone to walk from the airport to the provincial capitol, he said. It also makes relief efforts and supply deliveries more difficult.

While communication remains limited and reports remain sketchy and inaccurate, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) spokesman Rey Balido told dzMM radio in an interview on Saturday morning, they have gotten "initial contact" from their team in the city Friday night, November 8.

"They said the damage inflicted by super typhoon Yolanda was severe," he said in the interview. "They said there are barely any houses [left] standing."

Balido said a few buildings reportedly remain intact but that most houses were crushed by fallen trees. He said they are still trying to determine the exact number of casualties.

"Our team there said many died but they were unable to tell us how many," he said.

Call for volunteers

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The government says it is now prioritizing providing relief to Tacloban City, which was badly hit by super typhoon Yolanda

The government expressed alarm on Saturday about the unfolding scale of the disaster.

"We are very concerned about the situation there," Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras told reporters, when asked about the deaths in and around Tacloban.

"The president is asking why there were still fatalities."

A journalist on the ground in Tacloban described chaos in the wake of Typhoon Yolanda, with "a lot of wounded" from the typhoon and hospitals unable to treat everyone due to the number of injured. The reporter also noted "looting everywhere" as people in Tacloban scramble for supplies, such as water.

The city was previously cut off completely from all contact to the outside world, and government officials were at a loss as to the extent of damage in the city.

In a separate interview with radio dzBB, Secretary to the Cabinet Rene Almendras backed Balido's statement saying he also received reports of massive damage in Tacloban City, which led to the government's decision to send a C-130 flight with relief goods to the city.

"We are very concerned with the situation in Tacloban that is why (Social Welfare) Sec. (Dinky) Soliman is on the C-130 now flying to Tacloban," he said.

He also called for volunteers.

"We are at the stage of rescue and relief. Our priority right now is to bring relief goods," he said.

Military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Ramon Zagala told Agence France-Presse that 15,000 soldiers had been deployed to the disaster zones. "We are flying sorties to bring relief goods, materials and communication equipment," Zagala said.

Government relief goods are on their way to Tacloban City as of posting time.

[B]Like a war zone[/B

South of the city, the Visayas State University in Baybay City, Leyte – being used as an evacuation center – was described as being "like a war zone," a resident told Rappler Mover Derek Alviola.

One of the most intense typhoons on record, Yolanda whipped the central part of the country for most of Friday, November 8, and terrified millions.

Yolanda smashed into coastal communities on the central island of Samar before dawn on Friday with maximum sustained winds of about 235 km/h and gusts of up to 275 km/h, according to PAGASA. Foreign meterologists said it hit land with winds of 315 km/h, one of the strongest ever recorded. It is one of the most intense typhoons ever to make landfall.

Yolanda swept across the Visayas, destroying phone and power lines, as well as homes and vital infrastructure

Source:-
http://www.rappler.com/nation/43285-initial-reports-damage-tacloban-city

Terpe

9th November 2013, 09:44

Yolanda survivors recount onslaught, fury of the storm

In Ormoc City's Regional Trial Court building, Belenda Montebon, along with other evacuees, waits for much-needed help to arrive.

Outsiders have yet to enter the city, said Montebon.

There is no potable water, food, or electricity. "Naghihintay pa lang kami ng tulong if ever may darating na relief goods po," Montebon told Rappler. (We're waiting for help to arrive, if relief goods reach us.)

Cellphone signal comes and goes and with power still down, communication gadgets are running dangerously low on battery.

The 62-year-old could barely express what the devastating storm was like. "Sobrang takot kami, hindi ko mae-explain. Nagtatakbuhan mga tao kasi may mga nagco-collapse na building at walang kuryente," she added. (We were very scared, I couldn't explain it. People were running around because buildings were about to collapse and there was no electricity.)

Jed Cortes drove to Ormoc by motorcycle to check on people he knew. He described what he saw – "It looks like a wasteland here with crumpled houses and trees down."

Full-capacity hospitals

Journalists in Tacloban City, meanwhile, had to rush up the ceiling of the Oriental Hotel as flood waters rose to the 2nd floor of the 2-story building Friday morning.

On Saturday, November 9, the full damage to the Leyte capital became more apparent. Officials reported at least 100 dead in Tacloban, and journalists on the ground have seen "a lot of wounded." The number of dead is expected to rise as communication lines are restored.

Hospitals in Tacloban are at full capacity and are unable to treat the wounded.

As access to the city is still difficult, water supplies are running low. "There's looting everywhere," one witness said.

Yolanda is tagged as one the strongest storms ever recorded. Foreign meteorologists say Yolanda made landfall with winds of up to 315 kilometers per hour. State weather bureau PAGASA reported maximum sustained winds of 235 km/h and gusts of up to km/h.

Montebon said Typhoon Yolanda is the worst storm she's seen. "Ngayon ko lang na-experience ito. Pinakamalapit na yung November 1990, bagyong Ruping," she said. (I've never experienced this in my life. The closest would be Typhoon Ruping in 1990.)

Ruping, which hit the same region in 1990, left 508 people dead and over a thousand injured.

Source:-
http://www.rappler.com/nation/43304-yolanda-ormoc-tacloban

Terpe

9th November 2013, 09:44

More than 50,000 evacuated in Negros Occidental

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More than 50,000 Negrenses had been displaced by super typhoon Yolanda in Negros Occidental, but no life was lost, local officials said on Friday, November 8.

Provincial social welfare officer Liane Garcia said the super typhoon left 21,753 evacuees in 16 towns and cities as of 3 pm Friday.

In Bacolod City alone, about 31,000 had been evacuated, according to Mayor Monico Puentevella.

Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr, who went to the northern part of the province early Friday morning to check the extent of damage wrought by Yolanda, the cities of Sagay, Cadiz, Escalante, and Toboso were the hardest hit.

Trees were uprooted by strong winds, blocking major thoroughfares in Sagay and Cadiz cities. Flying roofs threatened those in residential areas.

With Yolanda leaving the country, Marañon said the provincial government’s priority are response, relief and rehabilitation efforts. He ordered the Provincial Disaster Risk and Reduction Management Council and member-agencies to immediately start clearing up roads in northern Negros so as not to hamper the delivery of relief goods and services.

While the extent of damage to properties is still being determined, Marañon said that so far no reports on casualties reached his office. “It’s heart-warming to know that no lives were reported lost; only damage to properties," he said.

The governor advised residents near bodies of water to stay at the evacuation centers until authorities say it is safe to return to their homes.

The entire province was left with no electricity. Local electric cooperatives have yet to give any assurance when power will be restored.

Meanwhile, Puentevella said he has already recommended to the Bacolod City council to place the city under state of calamity

Source:-
http://www.rappler.com/nation/43268-yolanda-negros-evacuees

Terpe

9th November 2013, 17:02

Land route from Manila to Tacloban now passable

http://static.rappler.com/images/tacloban-yolandaph-20131109-17.jpg
A street in Tacloban City, Leyte

Relief goods may now be transported to Tacloban City, Leyte via land transport.

Land routes from Metro Manila all the way to Tacloban, through the San Juanico bridge, are now passable as of Saturday afternoon, Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas told ANC Saturday, November 9.

As of 5:30 pm Saturday, authorities were also able to clear the road to the Tacloban airport, allowing relief goods flown in via C130s and helicopters to be trucked to the city proper. Earlier, relief goods had to be flown inland via helicopters, Roxas said.

Roxas urged everyone to donate useful items, including food, water, blankets and tarpaulins, for the affected residents.

"Whatever is being brought in is not going to be enough," Roxas told ANC. "The enormity of the destruction is huge and it's hard to imagine and I dont know what pictures have been sent out so I'm sure people cannot imagine the destruction but it's really very bad."

Before the road to the airport was cleared, it took relief personnel the whole day to traverse a 15 kilometer-road leading to the location.

Despite the devastation brought by Typhoon Yolanda that left only a few homes standing in Tacloban, the San Juanico bridge that links Samar and Leyte remained intact, Roxas said.

As of Saturday afternoon, AFP detachments from Samar have been able to "punch through" the debris on the Leyte side of the San Juanico bridge. With the road cleared, vehicles loading relief goods could now reach certain areas in the Visayas hit by Yolanda.

"The land route from Manila is now open – Manila all the way to Bicol, crossing over to Samar, Catbalogan are open; all the way down to San Juanico," Roxas said. "So relief goods can also come by truck to Tacloban, Leyte."

Meanwhile, Tacloban Airport remains closed to commercial flights

http://static.rappler.com/images/tacloban-yolandaph-20131109-36.jpg
What's left of the Tacloban Airport

Scouts on bicycles sent out to assess damage

Hours after Yolanda left the Philippines, authorities still had difficulty providing an accurate count of the total cost of damage and the number of casualties due to the lack of communication lines in some towns.

To help assess the situation, the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police deployed scouts on bicycles to get to hard-to-reach areas, Roxas said. Hopefully, through them, officials would have a clearer picture of the extent of the damage, and provide more information.

Additional police and military forces are set to be deployed to affected areas by Sunday morning, according to Roxas.

Asked how authorities are assessing which areas to prioritize for search and rescue, as well as relief operations, Roxas said: "I think it's not so much by choice but by circumstance here. If they're inaccessible, it's difficult to send a truck there to respond."

President Benigno Aquino III is set to visit Tacloban on Sunday

Source:-
http://www.rappler.com/move-ph/issues/disasters/typhoon-yolanda/43330-land-route-manila-tacloban-passable-roxas

Terpe

9th November 2013, 17:45

Tacloban hospital faces medicine shortage

http://static.rappler.com/images/tacloban-yolandaph-20131109-15.jpg[/B]
[I]Bethany Hospital in Tacloban City is in need of supplies, particularly anti-tetanus medicine

With power and communication lines still cut off, and water running low, doctors and nurses in the Leyte capitol have another brewing problem – the lack of medicine to treat patients.

The city was heavily battered by Typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) early morning Friday, November 8. In Tacloban City alone, at least 100 are believed to be dead, although unofficial reports say there could be over a thousand.

Eulogia Barcelones, nurse supervisor at Bethany Hospital in Tacloban City, told Rappler they are running low on medicine. Their pharmacy, she said, was either swept away by storm surges from Yolanda or ransacked by looters in the city.

Hospital staff are also in need of anti-tetanus medicine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dU9_tT_yBi0

"Lahat inakyat namin," Barcelones said. (We brought everything to the 2nd floor.)

Chest-deep waters reached the first floor of the hospital, forcing them to move patients to the 2nd floor. Patients now stay inside private rooms or along the hospital corridors. Some patients have chosen to go home, said Barcelones.

In the 1st floor of the hospital, the injured are treated in makeshift stations. The hospital's Intensive Care Unit was also "washed out," Barcelones said.

Bethany Hospital also serves as temporary shelter for a family from Magallanes.

On Saturday, November 9, President Benigno Aquino III admitted that in areas without power and communication lines, it's difficult for the health department to make proper assessments. But the national government is preparing needed supplies.

Efforts will be made to collect data from affected localities

Source:-
http://www.rappler.com/move-ph/issues/disasters/typhoon-yolanda/43332-tacloban-bethany-hospital-yolanda

stevewool

9th November 2013, 18:01

just amazing,

Terpe

9th November 2013, 18:05

Palawan's giant cross gone in Typhoon Yolanda onslaught

http://images.gmanews.tv/v3/webpics/v3/2013/11/2013_11_09_09_39_38.jpg
Giant Cross in Coron, Palawan, before it was knocked down by Typhoon Yolanda on Friday, Nov. 8, 2013

Palawan province lost one of its top attractions in the onslaught there of Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) Friday.

State-run Philippine Information Agency reported early Saturday that the giant metal cross on top of Mt. Tapyas was gone.

"The giant cross on top of Mt. Tapyas is gone," the PIA Palawan unit said in a post on its Twitter account. The metal cross is usually lit at night.

Also, it said:

About 6,000 evacuees in Coron

It added that as of Saturday, many roads were not passable due to fallen trees and debris from roofs that were ripped off from houses.

"Yolanda leveled almost all trees in Coron Poblacion," it added

Source:-
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/334703/news/regions/palawan-s-giant-cross-gone-in-typhoon-yolanda-onslaught?ref=topstories

Terpe

9th November 2013, 18:09

UK sends team to assist those affected

The United Kingdom has joined the European Union in sending a team to areas devastated by super typhoon Yolanda, which wreaked havoc across central Philippines and other parts of the country on Friday.

British citizens living in the Philippines also want to play their part in assisting the affected communities,” UK Ambassador Asif Ahmad said in a statement on Saturday.

"Yet again the resilience of the people of the Philippines is being tested in the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda. With our expression of concern and sorrow for the victims comes our assurance of help," he said.

"A team is on its way from the UK to assess needs and then mobilize resources. The fortunate ones will be able to recover quickly but the most vulnerable people will need help to rebuild their shattered lives."

EU Ambassador Guy Ledoux earlier announced that Europe will provide humanitarian aid to families affected by typhoon, also known by its international name, Haiyan.

The super typhoon, one of the world’s most powerful storms in history, battered most of the Visayan region and other parts of the country, affecting thousands and left at least three dead.

"The Philippines has been severely tested by nature on several occasions this year. As it confronts yet another natural calamity I express my solidarity with the Filipino people and my deep sympathy with those who have lost their loved ones or their livelihoods,” Ledoux said.

An EU humanitarian aid team, he added, is already in the Philippines to assess the impact of the typhoon and find out how the EU can be most helpful to those who urgently need assistance

Source:-
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/334712/news/nation/uk-sends-team-to-assist-those-affected-by-super-typhoon-yolanda?ref=topstories

Terpe

9th November 2013, 18:12

Bantayan Island, 3 Cebu towns completely isolated

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Three towns in Bantayan Island remain cut off

Though Super Typhoon Yolanda (international codename: Haiyan) is out of the Philippines, at least 6 municipalities in Cebu remain completely isolated, with all modes of communication cut off since Friday, November 8, and roads impassable to vehicles.

All three towns in Bantayan Island – Sta Fe, Madridejos and Bantayan – still cannot be reached. Bantayan Island is known for its white sand beaches and is a popular escape for Cebuanos and tourists alike.

Bantayan Mayor Cris Escario said at least 7 died in the town.

As provincial relief teams push north to deliver much-needed aide, Bantayan Island remains cut off because of big waves, the Philippine News Agency reported.

Cebu Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management officer Neil Sanchez said he does not want to risk the lives of responders.

Bibi delos Reyes and a team from the Airworks Aviation Academy surveyed Bantayan Island and Daanbantayan Saturday, November 9, showing the extent of devastation in the towns:

The towns of Bogo, Medellin and Daanbantayan in northern Cebu still cannot be reached by Internet, telephone, radio or cellular phone, according to the Philippine Police Region 7 Office. News reports say roads in the localities are either damaged, flooded, or blocked by debris, making it impossible for vehicles to pass through and bring much-needed relief goods to typhoon victims.

In Bogo, water supply and power have also been cut off. At the height of the storm, 6 died while 35 are injured and two are missing, according to the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Region 7 Office.

Several major buildings were unable to withstand the power of Yolanda. The town's Gaisano Mall caved in while the public market, bus terminal, two schools and San Vicente Ferrer Church sustained damages.

In Medellin, around 90% of houses are partially or totally damaged, estimated its mayor Ricardo Ramirez,

Regional police also said 6 areas in Cebu City suffered from landslides. At least 105 trees were uprooted in Cebu and Bohol, the regional police office added.

The Philippine Information Agency for Central Visayas is calling for donations of food, water, blankets, mats and medicines badly needed by evacuees in the 3 towns. Earth movers like dumptrucks and payloaders are also urgently needed to clear out roads and establishments.

Since entering the Philippine Area of Responsibility on November 7, Yolanda – said to be the strongest typhoon this year – has decimated everything in its path, and caused destructive 17-foot-high storm surges and devastating landslides. Hundreds are feared dead. It exited the Philippines in the afternoon of Saturday, November 9.

Source:-
http://www.rappler.com/nation/43319-cebu-municipalities-isolated

Terpe

9th November 2013, 21:22

Iloilo, Palawan town declare state of calamity

http://images.gmanews.tv/v3/webpics/v3/2013/11/320_2013_11_09_14_56_20.jpg
Coron, Palawan

At least two areas on Saturday declared a state of calamity after suffering losses due to Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan).

Iloilo and Coron town in Palawan were among the areas hit hard by Yolanda when it battered central Philippines on Friday.

The Official Gazette cited a report from state-run Philippine Information Agency that the Iloilo Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council held an emergency meeting Saturday afternoon on the matter.

It said the council passed a resolution declaring the province in a state of calamity.

The PIA also said the Coron municipal council declared a state of calamity as well.

Yolanda exited the Philippine area of responsibility Saturday afternoon and is heading for Vietnam.

While it was in the PAR, it made landfall six times in Luzon and Visayas

Source:-
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/334743/news/regions/iloilo-palawan-town-declare-state-of-calamity-due-to-yolanda?ref=related_stories

Terpe

9th November 2013, 21:37

For Boholanos: After super quake, a super typhoon

http://1-ps.googleusercontent.com/h/newsinfo.inquirer.net/files/2012/06/300x201xTagbilaran-city-300x201.jpg.pagespeed.ic.u5PFJdfnJ6.jpg
Tagbilaran City, Bohol

Rowena Anhao has one fervent wish: Let “Yolanda” be the last calamity to hit Bohol.

Anhao and her two daughters Novem Grace, 6, and Princess Ariane, 9, have been evacuated twice in less than a month.

They were forced to live in a tent after their house in Loon was destroyed by the 7.2- magnitude earthquake on October 15.

Last Thursday, they were among those gathered by local officials and brought to the capital, Tagbilaran City, as provincial officials prepared for the passage of Supertyphoon Yolanda.

“I hope there would be no more calamities. We no longer have a house and yet we have been hit by a typhoon. I hope Yolanda would be the last,” she told the Inquirer.

Bohol still had a very long way to recover from the earthquake that killed more than 200 persons and destroyed or damaged both public and private buildings and thousands of homes.

In less than a month, it was hit by two typhoons: Typhoon Wilma last week, which triggered floods and Supertyphoon Yolanda on Friday.

The typhoon sent more than 40,000 people back to various evacuation centers and set back rehabilitation efforts in the province.

Among the evacuees were Anhao and her girls.

Anhao told the Inquirer that she still had to rebuild her house, which was destroyed by the earthquake.

She said they had been staying in a tent near the rubble of her home when they were asked to leave on Thursday because their area had several underground caves that could collapse if the ground were softened by heavy rain brought by the new typhoon.

They hastily gathered some clothes and blankets before boarding the truck sent by Loon Mayor Lloyd Lopez.

They, along with 26 other families, arrived at the Dr. Cecilio Putong National High School in Tagbilaran City about 6 p.m.

Anhao said her daughters asked her where they were going when they boarded the truck because they were still afraid of the aftershocks.

“My children were scared but I told them this would be over soon,” she said.

Anhao’s husband, Arthur, works in a factory in Manila but he would call her every now and then to check on them.

“Our house is gone. Our belongings are gone. As long as my children are okay, we will be able to overcome this,” Anhao said.

The Provincial Social Welfare and Development office in Bohol said 42,435 evacuees were staying in 362 evacuation centers during the onslaught of Yolanda on Friday.

PSWD head Liza Quirog said the local government units provided food packs and relief goods to their evacuees.

“They have prepared well. Evacuees from the towns who came to Tagbilaran City like Loon and Catigbian residents were provided by the provincial government,” she told the Inquirer in a text message.

One person was reported missing while another was wounded during the typhoon, the PSWD said.

Raffy Pelonio of Aklan disappeared into the surf after the eight other crewmen jumped off a barge that had run aground off the town of Guindulman town on Friday. The seven other crew members were rescued along with the eight member crew of another barge.

Meanwhile, Bohol was still without power Saturday due to the typhoon, which destroyed more than 27 houses and uprooted 48 trees. Many of the houses in Bohol were either destroyed or damaged by the earthquake

Source:-
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/524245/for-boholanos-after-super-quake-a-super-typhoon

grahamw48

9th November 2013, 21:42

Thanks for posting all the information, pictures and updates Peter.

Knowing the Filipinos, they will still be smiling. What an amazing people, to be able to cope with all these natural disasters year after year. I take my hat off to them, and hope that they will receive the help, care, and respect that they deserve.

Terpe

9th November 2013, 21:49

I hope Brian and his family are all safe out there in Bacolod

‘Yolanda’ displaces 6,500 families in Negros Occidental

A TOTAL of 6,596 families in Negros Occidental, including Bacolod City, have been displaced by Typhoon Yolanda as of Friday afternoon.

In Bacolod, 1,805 families sought shelter in 37 evacuation centers, a report of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office showed.

Sixteen cities and municipalities in Negros Occidental initiated preventive evacuations, the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO) reported.

A consolidated report of the PSWDO showed the number of evacuees increased to 4,791 families from 3,026 early Friday morning.

The evacuees, who came from 103 barangays, were sheltered in 111 evacuation centers.

The PSWDO reported that Victorias City has the most number of affected families at 581 from 13 villages.

Cadiz City evacuated 565 families from 12 barangays; Kabankalan City, 689 families; Bago City, 469 families; Calatrava, 386 families; Himamaylan City, 355 families; Sagay City, 330 families; Isabela, 285 families; Ilog, 202 families; Escalante City, 254 families; Silay City, 211 families; E.B. Magalona, 191 families; Sipalay City, 155 families; Pontevedra, 81 families; La Castellana, 26 families; and Moises Padilla, 11 families.

PSWDO head Liane Garcia said they have delivered 3,025 family food packs to the affected families. Each food pack contains three kilos of rice, three cans of sardines and three pouches of noodles.

She added that the Department of Social Welfare and Development also sent 2,775 food packs for typhoon victims in Negros Occidental

Source:-
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/bacolod/local-news/2013/11/08/yolanda-displaces-6500-families-negros-occidental-312828

Terpe

9th November 2013, 21:52

Negrenses called to prayers, mass

TOP officials of Negros Occidental and Bacolod City enjoined their constituents to come together in prayers and attend a thanksgiving mass as Typhoon Yolanda spared the province and the city from devastation.

Public storm warning signal number 4 was raised in northern Negros Occidental, including Bacolod, but the so-called super typhoon did not make a landfall in Negros.

Yolanda made its fourth landfall in Bantayan Island, Cebu, skipped Negros Occidental, then made its fifth landfall in Concepcion, Iloilo.

However, the hardest-hit in the province are the northern cities of Sagay, Cadiz, and Escalante and towns of Toboso and Calatrava towns.

Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. called on Negrenses Friday to continue their prayers.

The governor also appealed to affected families staying in different evacuation centers not to leave unless advised by authorities.

Puentevella said it has been a miracle that Bacolod has been spared by the worst effects of Typhoon Yolanda.

The thanksgiving mass of the City Government will be held at 8 a.m. Saturday.

“It’s a miracle, the power of prayer worked,” the mayor said.

Moreover, Puentevella also called for more relief goods for the displaced city residents.

He said the City Government needs assistance from the private sector, civic groups and individuals to supplement the relief supplies they procured.

The mayor said that among those needed are ready-to-eat foods, blankets, sleeping mats, medicines, clothing and drinking water

Source:-
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/bacolod/local-news/2013/11/08/negrenses-called-prayers-mass-312827

Terpe

9th November 2013, 21:54

Thanks for posting all the information, pictures and updates Peter.

It helps me and the wife also Graham .........

Terpe

9th November 2013, 21:58

Negros Occidental plunged into darkness

POWER has not been restored in Negros Occidental, including Bacolod City, Friday night even several hours after Typhoon Yolanda hit the province.

The power blackout were reported encompassed areas covered by Central Negros Electric Cooperative, including Bacolod, and areas in south Negros under the Negros Occidental Electric Cooperative and in the north covered by VMC Rural Electric Service Cooperative.

“The whole province is without electricity although I am happy that there are no reports on casualties yet but damages to houses and properties reached unparalleled level,” Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. said in a statement Friday night.

The governor added: “This is the worst and the strongest typhoon or calamity that had hit Negros Occidental to date.”

Marañon said the Provincial Government will focus next on response and rehabilitation efforts.

Eric Villaluna, officer-in-charge of the Provincial Disaster Management Program Division, said it paid off that the Provincial Government called for a preemptive evacuation two days before Typhoon “Yolanda” arrived.

The move prevented possible casualties or loss of lives, he said.

Villaluna said that even if the typhoon is already on its way out of the Philippine Area of Responsibility, residents near the coastal areas or residing close to waterways, still should not take chances

Source:-
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/bacolod/local-news/2013/11/08/negros-occidental-plunged-darkness-312826

gWaPito

9th November 2013, 22:19

It's not looking good. ..Brian's normally very active on Facebook....His family are there. .it's a worry

Terpe

9th November 2013, 22:20

Iloilo under state of calamity

http://static.rappler.com/images/typhoon-yolanda-iloilo-20131109-001.jpg
A barangay hall swept by winds caused by typhoon Yolanda in Iloilo

The entire province of Iloilo was placed under state of calamity Saturday afternoon, November 9.

A Philippine National Agency report said the provincial board expects more casualties to be recorded as authorities assess the situation in the northern town of Estancia.

Acting Governor Raul Tupas said Estancia, a fishing municipality, was almost 100% destroyed by super typhoon Yolanda (international codename: Haiyan).

Earlier, The towns of Dumangas, Mina, Janiuay, and Zarraga in the province of Iloilo were placed under a state of calamity.

The declaration of a state of calamity allows the province to use its P70-million calamity fund.

In the entire province, 8 people were confirmed dead while one remained missing, with more casualties expected.

Meanwhile, the town of Sara, remains isolated as of Saturday afternoon after the flood damaged roads to the area.

A number of towns in the 5th district – including Carles, Ajuy, Barotac Viejo, Concepcion, Batad, San Dionisio, San Rafael, and Balasan – also suffered the brunt of Yolanda.

Communication and power lines in these towns remain cut off as of Saturday afternoon, Tupas said.

According to the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, these are the number of families displaced across Iloilo:
•600 - Miag-ao
•110 - Guimbal
•344 - Zarraga
•841 - Pavia
•223 - San Miguel
•128 - New Lucena
•429 - Mina
•1,321 - Janiuay
•1815 - Dumangas
•3,140 - Passi city
•40 - Ajuy
•1200 - Carles

The provincial government of Iloilo is implementing a disaster preparedness and mitigation project called ReBUILD or Resilience Capacity Building for Cities and Municipalities to Reduce Disaster Risks from Climate Change and Natural Hazards.

It particularly planned to put in place mitigating measures that includ early warning systems in communities, operational contingency plans, re-engineered infrastructure, and zoning regulations based on risks

Source:-
http://www.rappler.com/move-ph/issues/disasters/typhoon-yolanda/43335-iloilo-state-of-calamity

gWaPito

9th November 2013, 22:25

Iloilo....that's where my wife's, mother's family all live.

Terpe

9th November 2013, 22:33

Iloilo....that's where my wife's, mother's family all live.

Hope they'll be OK

gWaPito

9th November 2013, 23:14

So do I Peter. ..I've offered help but no reply. It must be serious.

alesypalsy

9th November 2013, 23:25

We all here in hope,, such a sad state and i would also like to thank you for all the updates you are giving us terpe,
its an emotional time

gWaPito

9th November 2013, 23:37

We all here in hope,, such a sad state and i would also like to thank you for all the updates you are giving us terpe,
its an emotional time

Absolutely.

lordna

9th November 2013, 23:42

My wifes family are all from Tacloban and Basey, Samar...so far no communication so we don't know if they survived. A very worrying time.

Seen lots of pictures from Tacloban and its been extremly badly hit with not many buildings left standing it seems.

gWaPito

10th November 2013, 01:41

gWaPito

10th November 2013, 01:43

Super Typhoon Haiyan: Thousands Feared Dead

http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/iLsOHqm8iyhm_Wzv2iKz_w--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9Zml0O2g9MjU-/http://l.yimg.com/os/251/2011/12/15/sky_174244.gif (http://news.sky.com/skynews/)Sky News – 2 hours 2 minutes ago

http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/O263zte5v8EC_iwMestSvA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MjQwO2NyPTE7Y3c9NDAwO2R4PTA7ZHk9MDtmaT11bGNyb3A7aD0xMTQ7cT04NTt3PTE5MA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_uk/News/skynews/187445637-1-400x240-20131109-223521-866.jpgView Photo (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/lightbox/super-typhoon-haiyan-thousands-feared-dead-photo-187445637-1-400x240-20131109-223521-866-223334659.html)Super Typhoon Haiyan: Thousands Feared Dead

Thousands of people are feared to have been killed in the areas of the Philippines hit by Super Typhoon Haiyan.

The country's Red Cross says it has been told there are 1,000 dead in Tacloban and 200 in Samar alone.
A Red Cross spokesman said: "We now fear that thousands will have lost their lives."
The scale of devastation led one UN disaster official to compare the destruction to that caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

The official death toll had reached 138 by 1pm on Saturday (UK time) but there are fears the eventual death toll will be "massive" after the tropical cyclone smashed through the country with winds gusting up to 170mph.
And there are growing fears for Vietnam which is now in the path of what has been called one of the most powerful recorded cyclones in history.

Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, head of a United Nations disaster assessment coordination team, said: "This is destruction on a massive scale.

"The last time I saw something of this scale was in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami."
Around 220,000 people died as a result of that disaster.
Gwendolyn Pang, Philippine Red Cross secretary general said: "An estimated more than 1,000 bodies were seen floating in Tacloban. In Samar, about 200 deaths. Validation is ongoing."

When asked how many had died in just the coastal town of Palo and its surrounding area, Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla said: "I think hundreds. Palo, Ormoc, Burauen... Carigara, they all looked the same."

Scores of towns and villages are thought to have been inundated with water after storm surges flooded low-lying areas, drowning many in their path.
TV pictures showed cars, trees and rubble from houses strewn across streets after they were picked up by giant waves and carried inland.
"Almost all houses were destroyed, many are totally damaged. Only a few are left standing," said Major Rey Balido, a spokesman for the national disaster agency.
About a million people evacuated because they were living in the typhoon's path have been returning to find out what is left of their houses.

Many of those who died are thought to have left shelters in an urgent bid to rescue valuables from their homes, unaware of the giant waves flooding through coastal towns.
Hundreds of thousands are thought to have been left homeless.

British team of humanitarian experts is due to fly out to the Philippines to help the UK Government decide what aid to send.
An appeal launched by the British Red Cross has already raised more than £100,000. US Secretary of State John Kerry said that America stood "ready to help".

Many of the most heavily damaged areas are still to be contacted because power and telephone lines are down, making the work of providing relief all the more difficult.
Captain John Andrews, a Philippines aviation chief, said he had spoken to colleagues by radio who had told him there were "100-plus dead lying on the streets" in Tacloban.
Tacloban is the capital of Leyte, a large island of about two million people that suffered a direct hit from Haiyan on Friday morning when the storm was at its strongest.
Leyte Island, about 350 miles south of the capital Manila, is one of six islands that was in the path of the super typhoon's centre.
An increasing problem for the authorities now is looting, with many of the survivors desperate to get hold of supplies from the shattered shops.
Thousands of police and army personnel are being flown into the affected areas to start relief operations and to uphold law and order.
At one point the super typhoon had been stronger than it was when it hit land, with winds gusting up to 235mph making it among the most powerful ever.

Meteorologists said that it had slowed to 100mph after passing over the Philippines but is still expected to be of typhoon force as it sweeps across the South China Sea toward Vietnam.
Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese have been moved away from coastal areas as authorities prepared for Haiyan to make landfall around 10am Sunday. Millions are thought to be living in its path.

Source ;-

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/super-typhoon-haiyan-hundreds-feared-dead-110246116.html#INTtdek

gWaPito

10th November 2013, 01:51

Typhoon Haiyan: In hard-hit Tacloban, children ripped from arms

By Andrew Stevens and Paula Hancocks, CNN
November 9, 2013 -- Updated 2216 GMT (0616 HKT)

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/131109090019-15-typhoon-1109-horizontal-gallery.jpg Fallen trees litter the ground at the Tacloban airport in the Philippines in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Haiyan on Saturday, November 9. The most powerful cyclone in three decades battered the Philippines, killing a number of people and leaving more than 100 bodies scattered on the streets of this coastal city. Haiyan, one of the most intense typhoons on record, plowed across the country on Friday, with monster winds tearing roofs off buildings and giant waves washing away homes.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

No building in the city of 200,000 appears to have survived intact
No communications satellite phones
A couple loses three of their daughters; two found dead
Red Cross may charter a boat to reach area

Tacloban, Philippines (CNN) -- No building in this coastal city of 200,000 residents appears to have escaped damage from Super Typhoon Haiyan.
Roads were impassable Saturday; all communications except for satellite phones were down; medical supplies, food and water were scarce; and there were reports of looting.
And that was far from the worst of it.
People who had walked, sometimes for hours, to the relief station at the Tacloban airport told stories of the human cost.
Children torn from arms
Marvin Isanan said three of his daughters -- ages 8, 13 and 15 -- were swept from his arms by the storm surge. He and his wife, Loretta Isanan, had found the bodies of the two younger children.
"Only the eldest one is missing," Marvin Isanan said through tears. "I hope she's alive."
A woman at the airport said she escaped the water by climbing onto her roof. From there, she watched bodies float by.
Authorities have only estimates of the deaths. Gwendolyn Pang, secretary general of the Philippine Red Cross, estimated that 1,000 people died in Tacloban and an additional 200 on the nearby island of Samar.
The airport now houses a makeshift morgue. Further inland, a CNN crew found a small chapel being used to house nine covered bodies -- five of them children.
Eastern islands first to feel typhoon's force
Samar province and Tacloban, in Leyte province, are part of the Philippines' eastern islands.
U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur made his famous return to the Philippines near Tacloban in World War II, wading ashore from the Leyte Gulf in 1944. The Battle of Samar was part of the ensuing naval battle in the Leyte Gulf, which ended with Japanese naval forces crushed.
The geography made the area the first heavily populated area to feel the force of Haiyan on Friday.
Death toll likely exceeds 1,000 (http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/09/world/asia/philippines-typhoon-haiyan/index.html)
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/131109025951-bpr-stevens-tacloban-city-devastation-00011219-story-body.jpgUtter devastation in Tacloban
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/131109115804-typhoon-damage-story-body.jpgSuper typhoon death toll rises
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/131108235852-bpr-novak-haiyan-aftermath-00015201-story-body.jpgPeople unable to reach loved ones
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/131108223619-bpr-hancocks-typhoon-aftermath-00014111-story-body.jpgWater levels reached the second story
The million people who lived along the coast, many of them in rough-built shacks, may have been worst affected by what some said was a 5-foot storm surge that spread through the city of Tacloban at the height of the storm and with devastating speed.
It receded quickly, leaving a path marked by pieces of people's lives destroyed.
Relief effort no match for need
Interactive map of the storm (http://ireport.cnn.com/open-story.jspa?openStoryID=1058473#DOC-1057539)
The Tacloban airport was not ready to accommodate the landing of planes carrying aid, though military helicopters began ferrying in supplies on Saturday. Trees and debris blocked roads to the airport, further delaying the relief operation.
How to help (http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/impact.your.world/)
Residents lined up at the airport for food. But the resources available were proving no match for the massive needs of the people, some of whom scoured piles of garbage in the streets for food, water or even missing loved ones.
People were wading through waist-high water amid a landscape littered with overturned vehicles, downed utility poles and trees, all of which were blocking the aid effort.
The Philippine Red Cross succeeded in getting its assessment team into Tacloban but had not managed to get its main team of aid workers and equipment to the city, Chairman Richard Gordon said.
"We really are having access problems," he said, adding that he was considering chartering a boat, which would take at least 1½ days to get there.
CNN's Andrew Stevens and Paula Hancocks reported this story from Tacloban; Tom Watkins and David Simpson wrote from Atlanta

Source:-
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/09/world/asia/philippines-tacloban/

gWaPito

10th November 2013, 02:53

Typhoon Haiyan: Thousands feared dead in Philippines http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/51606000/jpg/_51606573_fa1d16c0-9c6c-4f82-b0b8-ab66ddd94f78.jpg
Police in the Philippines say they fear 10,000 people may have died in the devastation wreaked by Typhoon Haiyan.
The Philippine government has so far only confirmed the death of several hundred people after the storm struck.
But regional police chief Elmer Soria said he was told by the provincial governor of Leyte that there were about 10,000 deaths on the eastern island alone.
Hundreds of thousands of people are reported displaced from their homes.
Philippine Interior Secretary Mar Roxas says the scale of the relief operation is overwhelming, with some places described as a wasteland of mud and debris.
Tecson Lim, city administrator of Tacloban in north east of Leyte, told the Associated Press that the death toll in the city alone "could go up to 10,000".
Typhoon Haiyan - one of the most powerful storms on record to make landfall - is now bearing down on Vietnam, where tens of thousands are being evacuated.

Sourcehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24887337

jake

10th November 2013, 07:46

It's not looking good. ..Brian's normally very active on Facebook....His family are there. .it's a worry

The good news is Brian and his girlfriend are fine :xxgrinning--00xx3:

Michael Parnham

10th November 2013, 07:55

tiger31

10th November 2013, 09:46

SimonH

10th November 2013, 09:50

stevewool

10th November 2013, 09:51

glad to here you are fine Brian

Doc Alan

10th November 2013, 09:56

Welcome back Brian, let's hope indeed neither you nor anyone else has to repeat this terrible experience again.

tiger31

10th November 2013, 09:59

It's not looking good. ..Brian's normally very active on Facebook....His family are there. .it's a worry
i,m ok mark just very lucky m8 thats the closest I ever want to be to a typhoon again thats for sure ,but we lost power and internet for 3 days there was some damage but looking at other cities we got off very lighty .but is worrying for my g f is that her niece lives on leyte and we have heard nothing from them so we are hoping that they have somehow survived what a mess that place is.I did send her a message before the storm hit i,m just hoping she took my advice and found a safe place to stay.

tiger31

10th November 2013, 09:59

:xxgrinning--00xx3:
Good to see you back, safe and sound mate :Wave:
Must have been a bit :yikes: having to wait for it to pass.
:xxgrinning--00xx3:

tiger31

10th November 2013, 10:01

Welcome back Brian, let's hope indeed neither you nor anyone else has to repeat this terrible experience again.

cheers doc that was too close for comfort ,I was laughing it off before coz i,m sort of laid back sort of guy but that was scary stuff .

tiger31

10th November 2013, 10:01

glad to here you are fine Brian

:xxgrinning--00xx3: cheers bro

tiger31

10th November 2013, 10:03

what about other members and their families anyone still waiting on news? there is still lots of places with no communications yet due to loss of power lines and cell phone signal towers it could be a long wait before everyone hears that their families are safe

grahamw48

10th November 2013, 10:57

Glad to hear that you've come through it safely Brian. :xxgrinning--00xx3:

gWaPito

10th November 2013, 11:43

i,m ok mark just very lucky m8 thats the closest I ever want to be to a typhoon again thats for sure ,but we lost power and internet for 3 days there was some damage but looking at other cities we got off very lighty .but is worrying for my g f is that her niece lives on leyte and we have heard nothing from them so we are hoping that they have somehow survived what a mess that place is.I did send her a message before the storm hit i,m just hoping she took my advice and found a safe place to stay.

It's a mighty relief to have you back Brian. Looks like the mountain saved you. Lets hope your lady's niece ok

Rosie1958

10th November 2013, 12:09

Tiger checking in phew that was something I do not wish to repeat ever again although looking at leyte we got off lightly no damage to my house but some houses had minor damage what saved my baranguy was the fact we are sheltered by a mountain so the wind was broken up a bit before coming back down on us ,but it was 5 hours of terror then it was all over .we got plenty of water into our extension but no perm damage so thats me back after 3 days no power or internet .

So relieved to hear that you are safe, Brian. What a terrible terrible experience :NoNo::NoNo::NoNo:

Just can't stop crying about the sheer magnitude of this natural catastrophe, the massive loss of life and those without homes :bigcry::bigcry::bigcry: I will definitely be making a donation to help the needy. God bless all those thousands of poor souls that lost their life and I hope and pray that the relief teams are able to get to the survivors quickly

Michael Parnham

10th November 2013, 12:25

It's a big relief to know your ok Brian, nice to have you back! :xxgrinning--00xx3:

Terpe

10th November 2013, 13:06

Ah, there you are Brian ...... at last :xxgrinning--00xx3:

Really glad to learn you all came through unharmed and that you house is undamaged
What a relief.
I'm sure it was a frightening experience.

tiger31

10th November 2013, 14:46

yes folks it was a scary event not one I wish to repeat in a hurry but WAIT there is another one coming i,m not kidding a bit smaller than this one but another all the same .The poor philippines has taking some hits this year lots of peoples lives ruined for ever and ever .When you see all the pictures its hard to take all of it in the force of nature at its worst.Lucky for us europeans we don,t see this sort of weather very often like it is here in the philippines ,but its normal here every year the typhoon season is normal here and people just get used to it.we are still waiting on news from out lining islands to check in leyte was proberly the biggest shock ,but eastern samar is a very poor region and still nothing been heard from them yet so this story has a long way to go .

alesypalsy

10th November 2013, 15:33

Michael Parnham

10th November 2013, 15:43

Terpe

10th November 2013, 17:31

There was much despair and crying in our house early this morning around 2-3 am
We finally managed to contact some family members who somehow got to Davao.
Nothing really concrete but many stories and the usual rumours about grim news to follow.

Listening to every report about Tacloban City and other hard hit areas just gets more horrific.

It was a good decision on our part to remain here in UK a bit longer, we'll be 'tapping' our UK income stream for some time yet.

stevewool

10th November 2013, 17:42

it is hard to put one self into what they and others must be going through, the poor children, words just cannot express what i am thinking and what if anything i can do to help, i see the little faces of the kids playing when we was last there in bohol,and san miguel, they had nothing much when we was there so what chance have they of having anything now, i just hope all are ok

Terpe

10th November 2013, 18:09

I'm not really thinking straight, but I've just watched another report. Always the same requests....clean water.

Most folks can survive without food for a few days, but no-one can survive without clean water.

I don't know how to resolve but surely it's possible

gWaPito

10th November 2013, 18:38

Doc Alan

10th November 2013, 20:18

Moderator Steve and his family are safe :smile:. They live in Bongabon, province of Nueva Ecija in the Central Plains of Luzon. They did have strong winds and rain, but reported no damage for them.

grahamw48

10th November 2013, 20:33

Ah, good news.
Thanks for letting us know Alan.:xxgrinning--00xx3:

Terpe

10th November 2013, 20:48

Moderator Steve and his family are safe :smile:. They live in Bongabon, province of Nueva Ecija in the Central Plains of Luzon. They did have strong winds and rain, but reported no damage for them.

:xxgrinning--00xx3:

I'd guessed so but thanks for the confirmation Alan

gWaPito

10th November 2013, 22:57

Moderator Steve and his family are safe :smile:. They live in Bongabon, province of Nueva Ecija in the Central Plains of Luzon. They did have strong winds and rain, but reported no damage for them.

Thanks for that Alan..I wasn't sure where he lived and nobody had mentioned him...He came to mind this afternoon

gWaPito

10th November 2013, 23:01

Good to see you are alive and well and able to communicate brian!

What a nightmare in reality, glad to see your well,

we still awaitng news on wifes family in culaba , biliran leyte......... its a long wait

I can't imagine what your wife is going through..family's everything..As with Mendoza, you are in my prayers

Please keep us updated, alesypalsy

Regards
gWapito

stevie c

10th November 2013, 23:34

Me & florsel have friends that live in tacloban we have tried to contact them but to no avail we are praying it's becauseof the loss of power & phone lines down it's very worrying times

alesypalsy

10th November 2013, 23:45

I can't imagine what your wife is going through..family's everything..As with Mendoza, you are in my prayers

Please keep us updated, alesypalsy

Regards
gWapito

appreciate your prayers, our problem is that wifes mum is a stroke victim so is not mobile, she is old and her dad is also old now, so its going to be difficult as it is for them to go anywhere, there is 3 young kids and 2 sisters,, so i dont think they are going to be able to go anywhere,
we sending our brother money tomorrow, he may go there and see if he can help them.
will keep you updated here

gWaPito

10th November 2013, 23:52

appreciate your prayers, our problem is that wifes mum is a stroke victim so is not mobile, she is old and her dad is also old now, so its going to be difficult as it is for them to go anywhere, there is 3 young kids and 2 sisters,, so i dont think they are going to be able to go anywhere,
we sending our brother money tomorrow, he may go there and see if he can help them.
will keep you updated here

Having your brother there will be a big comfort for all, as I said to Mendoza.
He may not be able to do much but, having him around looking out for them will lift their spirits

London_Manila

11th November 2013, 04:11

Tacloban is a town i know and love and i have been there many times

The news reports from there have left me shell shocked

I just hope they try and get that airport working soon not so easy i know
These people need aid and fast
Being caught up in that must be everyones worst nightmare

Terpe

11th November 2013, 11:08

Yolanda survivors desperate for aid

http://static.rappler.com/images/tacloban-20131110-afp-sml.jpg
Residents walk through debris and toppled power lines in Tacloban City

Survivors of a super typhoon that may have killed more than 10,000 people in the Philippines were growing increasingly desperate for aid Monday, November 11, as authorities struggled to cope with potentially the country's worst recorded natural disaster.

As the sheer scale of the devastation slowly became clear, rescue workers appeared overwhelmed in their efforts to help countless survivors of Super Typhoon Yolanda (international codename Haiyan), which sent tsunami-like waves and merciless winds rampaging across a huge chunk of the archipelago on Friday, November 9.

Hundreds of police and soldiers were deployed to contain looters in Tacloban, the devastated provincial capital of Leyte, while the United States announced it had responded to a Philippine government appeal and was sending military help.

"Tacloban is totally destroyed. Some people are losing their minds from hunger or from losing their families," high school teacher Andrew Pomeda, 36, told Agence France-Presse on Sunday, November 10, warning of the increasing desperation of survivors.

"People are becoming violent. They are looting business establishments, the malls, just to find food, rice and milk.... I am afraid that in one week, people will be killing from hunger."

President Benigno Aquino III said while visiting Tacloban on Sunday that looting had become a major concern, after only 20 officers out of the city's 390-strong police force turned up for work.

"So we will send about 300 police and soldiers to take their place and bring back peace and order," he said.

Haiyan, which moved out of the Philippines and into the South China Sea on Saturday, made landfall in Vietnam early Monday, US meteorologists said.

The US Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) said in an update at 2100 GMT the storm "is currently making landfall" approximately 97 miles (156 kilometers) east south-east of the capital Hanoi, with sustained winds of 75 miles (120 km) per hour.

The typhoon had weakened at sea, striking Vietnam as the equivalent of a category-one hurricane – the weakest on the one-to-five Saffir-Simpson wind-speed scale.

Even so, more than 600,000 people were evacuated, with flooding and heavy rain expected.

The Vietnamese government website said Sunday that five people had died while preparing for the storm.

Farther north, six members of a cargo boat were also missing off the Chinese province of Hainan, state media in China reported.

Reaching them is difficult

Up to four million children could be affected by the disaster, the United Nations Children's Fund warned Sunday.

"We are rushing to get critical supplies to children who are bearing the brunt of this crisis," said UNICEF Philippines representative Tomoo Hozumi.

"Reaching the worst-affected areas is very difficult," he said. "But we are working around the clock."

Authorities were struggling to understand the sheer magnitude of the disaster, let alone react to it, with the regional police chief for Leyte saying initial government estimates showed 10,000 people were believed to have died in that province alone.

Chief Superintendent Elmer Soria told reporters in Tacloban that the typhoon destroyed up to 80 percent of the structures in its path.

On the neighboring island of Samar, a local disaster chief said 300 people were killed in the small town of Basey.

He added another 2,000 were missing there and elsewhere on Samar, which was one of the first areas hit when Yolanda swept in from the Pacific Ocean as a category-five storm with maximum sustained winds of 315 km (195 miles) an hour, according to the JTWC.

Dozens more people were confirmed killed in other flattened towns and cities across a 600-km stretch of islands through the central Philippines.

As the scale of the disaster began to emerge, an international aid effort ratcheted up.

In Washington, the Pentagon announced that US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel had responded to a request from the Philippines for military aid and directed the US Pacific Command to deploy resources.

President Barack Obama said he was "deeply saddened" and added that Washington was "ready to further assist the government's relief and recovery efforts."

UN leader Ban Ki-moon also promised that humanitarian agencies would "respond rapidly to help people in need", while the European Commission said it would give three million euros ($4 million) to help relief efforts.

British Prime Minister David Cameron called Aquino to extend his sympathy, and offered an emergency support package worth six million pounds ($9.6 million).

Deadliest natural disaster

The Philippines endures a seemingly never-ending pattern of deadly typhoons, earthquakes, volcano eruptions and other natural disasters.

It is located along a typhoon belt and the so-called Ring of Fire, a vast Pacific region where many of Earth's earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur.

But if the death toll of more than 10,000 is correct, Yolanda would be the deadliest natural disaster ever recorded in the country, worse than the 1976 Moro Gulf tsunami that killed between 5,000 and 8,000 people.

Yolanda's maximum sustained wind speeds made it the strongest typhoon in the world this year, and one of the most powerful ever recorded.

Witnesses in Tacloban recalled waves up to 5 meters (16 feet) high surging inland. Aerial photos showed entire neighborhoods destroyed, with trees and buildings flattened by storm surge.

The Philippines country director of the World Food Programme, Praveen Agrawal, who visited Tacloban, said the devastation resembled that of a tsunami.

"All the trees are bent over, the bark has been stripped off, the houses have been damaged. In many cases they have collapsed," he told Agence France-Presse.

"The huge waves came again and again, flushing us out on the street and washing away our homes," Mirasol Saoyi, 27, told Agence France-Presse near Tacloban's seaside sports stadium, where thousands of people gathered.

"My husband tied us together, but still we got separated among the debris. I saw many people drowning, screaming and going under.... I haven't found my husband."

Source:-
http://www.rappler.com/nation/43393-survivors-desperate-for-aid-in-typhoon-ravaged-ph

Terpe

11th November 2013, 11:15

Tormented typhoon victims scour for food

http://static.rappler.com/images/typhoon-yolanda-tacloban-epa-20131110-001.jpg
Children pull sacks of goods they recovered from abandoned stores

Tormented survivors of a typhoon that is feared to have killed more than 10,000 in the Philippines rummaged for food Sunday, November 10, through debris scattered with corpses, while frenzied mobs looted aid convoys.

Two days after typhoon Yolanda, one of the most powerful storms ever recorded, flattened entire towns across part of the Southeast Asian archipelago, desperate survival tactics created fresh horrors.

On the outskirts of Tacloban City, a coastal eastern city of 220,000 where tsunami-like waves destroyed many buildings, Edward Gualberto accidentally stepped on bodies as he raided the wreckage of a home.

Wearing nothing but a pair of red basketball trousers, the father-of-four and village councillor apologized for his shabby appearance and for stealing from the dead.

"I am a decent person. But if you have not eaten in 3 days, you do shameful things to survive," Gualberto told AFP as he dug canned goods from the debris and flies swarmed over the bodies.

"We have no food, we need water and other things to survive."

After half a day's work, he had filled a bag with an assortment of essentials including packs of spaghetti, cans of beer, detergent, soap, canned goods, biscuits and candies.

"This typhoon has stripped us of our dignity... but I still have my family and I am thankful for that."

Desperate aggression fills security vacuum

Elsewhere in Tacloban, other survivors were employing more aggressive means as they took advantage of a security vacuum created when most of the city's police force failed to turn up for work after the typhoon.

Like Gualberto, many said they had not eaten since the typhoon and overwhelmed authorities admitted they were unable to get enough relief supplies into the city.

Some broke through shops that had withstood the typhoon by hammering through glass windows and winching open steel barricades.

http://static.rappler.com/images/typhoon-yolanda-tacloban-epa-20131110-009.jpg
Some survivors in Tacloban City employed more aggressive means as they took advantage of a security vacuum there

One desperate meat shop owner brandished a handgun in a failed bid to prevent one mob from entering his shop.

He was ignored and the shop was ransacked. The businessman just silently stood by, waving his gun in the air and shouting. When he realised he had lost the fight, he cursed them and walked away.

Nearby, pastry shop owner Emma Bermejo described the widespread looting as "anarchy,"

"There is no security personnel, relief goods are too slow to arrive. People are dirty, hungry and thirsty. A few more days and they will begin to kill each other," she said.

"This is shameful. We have been hit by a catastrophe and now our businesses are gone. Looted. I can understand if they take our food and water, they can have it. But TV sets? Washing machines?" (READ: Aquino asked to declare 'martial law' in Tacloban)

Philippine Red Cross chairman Richard Gordon described some of the looters as "mobsters," after one of his organisation's convoys was ransacked near Tacloban.

Meanwhile, confused men, women and children walked aimlessly along roads strewn with overturned cars and felled power lines, some gagging from the stench of rotting flesh.

A team of military cadaver collectors had been deployed, but the soldiers appeared overwhelmed.

"There are 6 trucks going around the city picking up the dead, but it's not enough," said the driver of one of the vehicles as it wended its way through the streets.

"There are bodies everywhere, we do not have enough people to get to them."

http://static.rappler.com/images/typhoon-yolanda-tacloban-epa-20131110-011.jpg
Villagers walk past a dead body laying on damaged breakwater in Tacloban city

Some survivors handed out small letters to passers-by and reporters asking them to contact their relatives to relay their fate.

Many had wounds on their faces and were limping, while all had stories of unimaginable horror.

"The huge waves came again and again, flushing us out on the street and washing away our homes," Mirasol Saoyi, 27, told AFP near the city's seaside sports stadium that withstood the typhoon and where thousand of people had gathered.

"My husband tied us together, but still we got separated among the debris. I saw many people drowning, screaming and going under... I haven't found my husband."

Source:-
http://www.rappler.com/move-ph/issues/disasters/typhoon-yolanda/43381-tormented-typhoon-victims-scour-for-food-yolanda

andy222

11th November 2013, 11:16

Tragic. My wife said there was another typhoon expected tomorrow.

Terpe

11th November 2013, 11:19

Aquino asked to declare 'martial law' in Tacloban

http://static.rappler.com/images/typhoon-yolanda-tacloban-epa-20131110-007.jpg
Widespread looting occurs in Tacloban city

Tacloban officials are urging President Benigno Aquino III to declare a state of emergency in the city, and if needed, martial law, after the devastation caused by Super Typhoon Yolanda (international codename Haiyan).

Such declaration will prevent anarchy, according to Vice Mayor Jerry Yaokasin, who reported that widespread looting is already taking place.

Yaokasin made the appeal in a meeting with the President and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council here Sunday, November 10.

City Administrator Tecson Lim echoed Yaokasin's concern.

The President, however, said the city council must first pass a resolution to that effect and establish there is threat of violence or anarchy. He added he is ready to act on the resolution as long as it's endorsed by the city mayor and the representative of the first district, where Tacloban is situated.

Aquino was reported to have walked out of a briefing with local and national officials Sunday, dismayed with the level of response to the typhoon. He returned to the meeting shortly after. Communications Assistant Secretary Rey Marfil later denied Aquino walked out, saying the President only took a bathroom break.

Chaos in the city

Tacloban was the hardest hit based on initial reports. At least 100 people died in the city, and more reports of casualties are expected as officials continue to assess the damage.

There's widespread looting in malls and establishments as residents scrounge for food and any useful material to help them survive the aftermath of the typhoon.

Rappler reported on Sunday that gunshots were fired outside a jail near the city hall after some prisoners attempted to escape. According to one jail officer, they have recaptured the prisoners.

The government has deployed additional police and military personnel to Tacloban to augment security forces in the city and aid in disaster response efforts

Source:-
http://www.rappler.com/nation/43363-tacloban-wants-state-of-emergency-martial-law-in-city

DaveW

11th November 2013, 20:07

My separated wife still has not heard from her mother and sisters who all live in Marabut Samar. Obviously phone lines are down, and today I read that Basey which is only 30 minutes drive away has been hit hard with around "300 deaths" and Guiuan has around "2000 dead".
Very upsetting and worrying. I've been to Tacloban City so many times and seeing it totally destroyed is so shocking.
Watching the people loot Gaisano where we bought our groceries and household stuff was crazy.
I really can't see this place ever recovering. Too much destruction and i'm sure the corruption will get in the way also

Anakin

11th November 2013, 20:18

Heart breaking scenes :bigcry:

Who do you think is the best organisation to donate to to see help get to the affected people of the Philippines as quickly and as efectively as possible?
Searches in uk newspapers show up a number of charities who are active in the typhoon disaster areas, but does anyone on here have a preference?
As they know I'm married to a Filipina I'm also being asked this by English friends....

stevewool

11th November 2013, 20:54

phils redcross, thats where i have sent and will be sending until some one says there is somewhere better

gWaPito

11th November 2013, 21:26

Anakin

11th November 2013, 21:28

cheers Steve.

alesypalsy

12th November 2013, 02:16

I'm the same....my wife's mother's family living in Iloilo...I picked my boys up this morning, Jane said she hasn't heard anything from them since Thursday evening, their time.
She's a tough one, like she said, what can we do..we got to carry on.

My wife's family, mum who is a stroke victim cannot walk, dad,sisters and bata's all in culaba biliran, We also have no idea if they are ok, dead or alive, the not knowing and not being able to do anything is terrible for all of us...... The worst of it as you know is with it being a bit more remote we don't know how long it will take to get reports of the areas....
God have mercy and I am not a religious type

gWaPito

12th November 2013, 09:46

My wife's family, mum who is a stroke victim cannot walk, dad,sisters and bata's all in culaba biliran, We also have no idea if they are ok, dead or alive, the not knowing and not being able to do anything is terrible for all of us...... The worst of it as you know is with it being a bit more remote we don't know how long it will take to get reports of the areas....
God have mercy and I am not a religious type

My mother said yesterday they don't know if Gordon (brother in law) and his wife are dead or alive..their 2 grown up kids (18 and 20 year olds ) here are in a right old state...Gordon married a Filipna in 1985. She came here that year.....They got a boy and girl who stayed behind in UK staying in the family home Gordon had given them...They only left for Philippines for good, this summer, His wife wasn't keen on going back because she'd made a life here but, Gordon being Gordon, he wanted out....With him being a brickie, over the years, he built a house for himself and inlaws. Now, like you, we wait for news

Terpe

12th November 2013, 11:38

Typhoon Haiyan: Ships head to Philippines amid devastation

US and British vessels were heading to the Philippines as the UN appealed for aid amid the large-scale devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan.

The US has deployed an aircraft carrier and navy ships, while the UK is sending a naval destroyer.

At least 10,000 people are feared to have been killed and thousands of survivors desperately require aid - but reports say little is getting through.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino has declared a state of national calamity.

In a statement, he said the two worst affected provinces, Leyte and Samar, had suffered massive destruction and loss of life.

A huge international relief effort is under way, but journalists and rescue workers at the scene say reaching areas affected by the storm is difficult.

Bernard Kerblat, who is overseeing the UNHCR response to the crisis, said some aircraft had landed in Cebu but distributing aid was difficult because of bad weather and damaged infrastructure.

"The rain is further complicating the effort for light vehicles, including trucks, to penetrate in areas wherever there's still a bridge left intact.

"The other bad news is that within the next 72 hours, we should see the arrival of yet another typhoon."

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71057000/jpg/_71057728_019958836-1.jpg
Large parts of the Philippines have been devastated by Typhoon Haiyan

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71057000/jpg/_71057736_019958860-1.jpg
In Tacloban, Leyte, hundreds have gathered at the airport for supplies or to try and leave the city

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71057000/jpg/_71057738_019957782-1.jpg
Thousands of survivors desperately need aid, including food and water

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71057000/jpg/_71057740_019959011-1.jpg
The Philippine president has declared a state of national calamity

Heartbreaking

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said 1,774 people had been reported dead, 2,487 were reported injured and 82 were missing.

The death toll is expected to rise significantly in coming days.

More than 580,000 people had been displaced and 41,000 houses had been damaged, the NDRRMC added.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described images of the impact of the storm as "heartbreaking".

The UN would launch a large-scale humanitarian plan and allocate $25m (£15.5m) "to fund critical relief efforts", he said.

"Many thousands of people are reported to have died and almost 10 million people have been affected... Let us all show our solidarity with the people of the Philippines at this time of need," he added.

On Tuesday, heavy thunderstorms struck Tacloban, one of the areas worst-hit by the typhoon. Correspondents say driving rain has added to the misery of tens of thousands of people living amid the wreckage of their homes.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71058000/jpg/_71058945_71058944.jpg
BBC correspondent Alastair Leithead: "The typhoon came into this building, ripped off the roof and tossed it 500 metres away"

One of the most powerful storms on record to make landfall, Haiyan - named "Yolanda" by Philippine authorities - struck the coastal provinces of Leyte and Samar on Friday.

It then headed west, sweeping through six central Philippine islands

Air Force Capt Antonio Tamayo told AP news agency the scene in Tacloban, one of the worst-hit areas, was "overwhelming".

"We need more medicine. We cannot give anti-tetanus vaccine shots because we have none.''

Officials said looting was widespread and order was proving difficult to enforce. Correspondents say many ordinary people are simply scavenging for the food and water needed to survive.

The government says it has deployed armoured vehicles to Tacloban to deter looters.

"We are circulating [the vehicles] in the city to show the people, especially those with bad intentions, that the authorities have returned," Interior Secretary Mar Roxas told DZMM radio.

Alison Wallace, chief executive of disaster relief charity Shelterbox, told the BBC that delivering aid safely would be a major concern.

"Security is going to be a big part of the operation," she said.

"We have to make sure that when the aid is delivered that we don't actually make the situation worse by creating difficult scenes for people - the aid has to be delivered fairly [and] with as much safety as possible."

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71053000/jpg/_71053288_path_of_distruction_624.jpg

Dead bodies

In a statement, the US said that aircraft carrier USS George Washington and other navy ships should arrive in the Philippines "within 48-72 hours".

"As needed, these ships and aircraft will be able to provide humanitarian assistance, supplies, and medical care in support of the ongoing efforts led by the government and military of the Republic of the Philippines," the statement said.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced that the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Darling would soon head to the disaster zone from Singapore.

It would take five days to arrive but once in the Philippines would bring engineering and first aid expertise, as well as the use of a Lynx helicopter.

Other countries have also pledged millions of dollars in assistance. Japan is providing $10m and Australia $9m in humanitarian aid, while New Zealand has pledged over $1m.

Reports from Tacloban say soldiers have been distributing food and water to some residents and the US military has sent marines to the city.

However, correspondents say that many in Tacloban have seen no evidence of aid at all.

UN humanitarian official John Ging said: "Many places are strewn with dead bodies".

"The first priority of response teams, once they were able to navigate their way into these areas, is to mobilise the burial of dead bodies because of the public health issues," he said.

"As we get more and more access we find the tragedy of more and more people killed in this typhoon," he added.

Flattened' city

More than nine million people have been affected in the Philippines. Many are now struggling to survive without food, shelter or clean drinking water.

On Tuesday, further details emerged of the extent of damage caused by the storm:

More than 1,200 deaths were reported in Leyte province. Tacloban, its provincial capital, was largely flattened by a massive storm surge. Hundreds of people gathered at the airport desperate for food and water, others trying to get a flight out
An aid convoy travelling to Tacloban was attacked, with troops shooting dead two of the attackers, reports said
At least 200 were killed in Samar province, the NDRRMC said. Samar's exposed easterly town of Guiuan - population 40,000 - is said to be largely destroyed
In Cebu, 63 people have been reported dead.
A 4.8-magnitude earthquake hit San Isidro, Bohol at 05:30 GMT, the US Geological Survey said. The quake was also felt in Cebu City, the government said. There have been no reported casualties so far.

Authorities had evacuated hundreds of thousands of people before the typhoon arrived, but many evacuation centres - schools, churches and government buildings - proved unable to withstand the winds and storm surges.

Haiyan brought sustained winds of 235km/h (147mph), with gusts of 275 km/h (170 mph) and waves as high as 15m (45ft). In some places, as much as 400mm (15.75 inches) of rain fell.

On Monday, the typhoon weakened into a tropical storm and reached Vietnam. State media said at least 13 people had died, although the fatalities appeared to have taken place during preparations for the storm, before it made landfall.

The storm then moved into southern China, triggering rainstorms in Guangxi province, state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

The heavy rains have left one dead and affected nearly one million people in Guangxi, Xinhua added

Source:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24895620

alesypalsy

12th November 2013, 11:46

We have just heard news that our family are all ok and alive and well, phew,, the wifes spirits are lifted and we are much better feeling in the house,

they are in Culaba biliran leyte and have said any wooden houses are either broken beyond repair or blown away, the place is no way as badly affected as the major hit zones, there is a generator in the town where our sister charged her cell phone and she got a smart phone signal on the highway,

i hope others awaiting to hear from loved ones will hear soon

gWaPito

12th November 2013, 11:49

Terpe

12th November 2013, 14:53

Rosie1958

13th November 2013, 01:46

Wonderful news, Alesypalsy!

Rosie1958

13th November 2013, 01:59

There are now several threads relating to different aspects of the super typhoon aftermath and I thought it might be useful to repeat some information in this main thread about charitable donations which I posted in reply to another thread in Loose Talk, Chat, etc. For anyone thinking about making a donation from the UK, please consider the following:-

I was going to make my donation to Philippines Red Cross, until I read on Sky News that the British government has now also pledged to match the first £5m donated to the Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC) which is made up of 14 charities – their mission statement is “together we are stronger” and an example of some of those charities participating is:-

British Red Cross
Oxfam
Age International
Christian Aid
Merlin
Save the Children
World Vision
Action Aid

The government had already committed £10m in aid, so the additional £5m will increase the UK’s support to £15m in total. Donating £100 in this way will actually mean that £200 will be raised. There is also a UK Gift Aid donation that will add 25% to the donation of a UK Taxpayer. So a £100 donation then becomes valued at £225….. more for the desperate Filipino people.

The DEC website is: http://dec.org.uk/appeals/philippines-typhoon-appeal

Our government has endorsed DEC by making an agreement with them so that’s good enough for me, particularly because of the added incentive mentioned above as well as gift aid. However, if there are any cash collections at local supermarkets for Philippine Red Cross, I will give to them too.

I see that the Queen has also made a personal donation, a wonderful example!

Terpe

13th November 2013, 12:12

Survivors flee Tacloban nightmare

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Survivors of the super Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan, board a C-130 military plane bound for Cebu at Tacloban airport, Leyte, on November 12, 2013

Thousands of people Wednesday, November 13, jostled and begged for seats on scarce flights out of a demolished Tacloban City, as anger at the slow pace of aid reaching the disaster zone turned deadly.

News emerged that 8 people were crushed to death Tuesday, November 12, when a huge crowd of survivors from Yolanda (Haiyan) – one of the strongest storms ever – rushed a government rice warehouse in Alangalang town, 17 kilometers (10 miles) from the devastated city of Tacloban.

"One wall of our warehouses collapsed and 8 people were crushed and killed instantly" in Tuesday's (November 12) incident, said Rex Estoperez, spokesman for the National Food Authority.

Five days after Yolanda ripped apart entire coastal communities, the situation in Tacloban was becoming ever more dire with essential supplies low and increasingly desperate survivors jostling at the airport.

"Everyone is panicking," Captain Emily Chang, a navy doctor, told Agence France-Presse.

"They say there is no food, no water. They want to get of here," she added, saying doctors at the airport had run out of medicine, including antibiotics.

"We are examining everyone but there's little we can do until more medical supplies arrive."

The United Nations estimates 10,000 people may have died in Tacloban, the provincial capital of Leyte province where 5-meter (16-foot) waves flattened nearly everything in their path as they swept hundreds of meters across the low-lying land.

However, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III said late Tuesday he believed that the toll was "too much." adding that 2,500 "is the figure we're working on."

'We may die from hunger'

At Tacloban airport, Agence France-Presse journalists witnessed exhausted and famished survivors pushing and shoving each other to get on one of the few flights out of the city, where festering bodies still littered many streets.

Health Secretary Enrique Ona admitted authorities were struggling to deal with the sheer numbers of the dead.

He told radio station DZMM they had "delayed" the retrieval of bodies "because we ran out of body bags."

"We hope to speed it up when we get more body bags."

"We have been here for 3 days and we still cannot get to fly out," said a frail Angeline Conchas, who was waiting for space on a plane with her 7-year-old daughter Rogiel Ann.

Her family was trapped on the 2nd floor of their building as flood waters rose around them.

They made their way to safety by clinging on to an electricity cable to move to a higher structure where they stayed until the waters subsided.

"It is a good thing the electricity had already been cut off or we would have died," Conchas said.

"We made it out, but now we may die from hunger."

UN's Amos: Much more needed

The UN estimates more than 11.3 million people have been affected with 673,000 made homeless, since Yolanda smashed into the nation's central islands on Friday, November 8.

Overwhelmed and under-resourced rescue workers have been unable to provide food, water, medicines, shelter and other relief supplies to many survivors, and desperation has been building across the disaster zones.

On Tuesday UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos praised the international community's reaction but said much more needed to be done in a disaster of such magnitude.

The international relief effort is building momentum with many countries pledging help. The United States and Britain are sending warships carrying thousands of sailors to the Philippines.

The aircraft carrier USS George Washington, which has 5,000 sailors and more than 80 aircraft aboard, is heading from Hong Kong with 5 other US warships, while 3 amphibious vessels are also being deployed.

The carrier group is expected to reach the Philippines later this week, the Pentagon said, bringing much needed supplies. But for a shattered population already in dire straits, any delay is too long.

"People are desperate because they have nothing in Tacloban," Marco Boasso of the International Organization for Migration said.

Hundreds of soldiers and police were patrolling the streets and manning checkpoints in Tacloban Wednesday to try to prevent pillaging.

Aquino: Lower death toll

President Aquino has declared a "state of national calamity," allowing the government to impose price controls and quickly release emergency funds.

Speaking in a CNN interview, he said that local officials who feared 10,000 had died in Tacloban may have been "too close" to the disaster to give an accurate toll.

"Being in the center of the destruction... there is emotional trauma associated with that particular estimate," he said.

"The figure I have right now is 2,000... so far about 2,000, 2,500 is the figure we're working on," Aquino added, though he admitted the toll still could rise.

The latest official government death toll stands at 1,798, although authorities have said they have not come close to accurately assessing the number of bodies lying amid the rubble or swept out to sea.

And international aid groups said they feared what was known now was just the tip of the iceberg.

"Obviously the situation in Tacloban is appalling but we are also very concerned about outlying islands," Patrick Fuller, Red Cross spokesman in the Asia-Pacific, told AFP.

"There are a lot of them and I think it will be days, if not weeks, before we have a clear picture."

Haiyan's sustained winds, when they hit Samar island (where it first hit land), reached 315 km (195 miles) an hour, making it the strongest typhoon in the world this year and one of the most powerful ever recorded.

Source:-
http://www.rappler.com/nation/43599-survivors-try-to-flee-tacloban-nightmare

Terpe

13th November 2013, 12:12

Philippine Typhoon Haiyan survivors 'desperate' for aid

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71082000/jpg/_71082165_71081860.jpg
Tacloban resident: "People of the world, come to my city. We need help very badly"

People are growing increasingly desperate for food, water and medical supplies in typhoon-hit parts of the Philippines, a congressman has warned.

Martin Romualdez, from badly-hit Leyte, said a greater sense of urgency was needed to get aid to those in need.

The UN says more than 11 million people may have been affected and some 673,000 displaced by Typhoon Haiyan.

On Tuesday, eight people died when a wall collapsed as thousands of survivors mobbed a food warehouse.

Police and soldiers were unable to stop the looters, who took more than 100,000 sacks of rice from the government facility in Alangalang, Leyte, said Rex Estoperez, spokesman for the National Food Authority.

Speaking to CNN on Tuesday, Philippine President Benigno Aquino said the death toll may be lower than first thought.

The widely reported figure of 10,000 killed may have come from officials facing "emotional trauma", he said, and the real figure was more likely up to 2,500.

But he said 29 municipalities had yet to be contacted to establish the number of victims there.

The president also warned that storms like Haiyan - known in the Philippines as Yolanda - were becoming more frequent, and there should be "no debate" that climate change was happening.

He said either the world committed to action on climate change "or let us be prepared to meet disasters".

Typhoon Haiyan - one of the most powerful storms ever recorded on land - hit the coastal provinces of Leyte and Samar on Friday.

It swept through six central Philippine islands before going on to kill several people in Vietnam and southern China.

Philippines disaster management officials have put the confirmed death toll at 2,275, with another 3,665 injured. More than 80 people are listed as missing.

But Martin Romualdez told the BBC he believed the government was giving "conservative" estimates of the death toll "so as not to cause undue alarm".

"Just viewing the disaster's scope - its magnitude and the areas affected - we believe that the 10,000 figure is more probable," he said. "As we start cleaning up we are finding more bodies."

Massive destruction

He said the "sense of urgency should be stepped up at the national level as the international relief organisations come in".

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71080000/jpg/_71080955_019970495-1.jpg
Survivors are spending a sixth day seeking food and shelter amid complaints that aid is not reaching victims

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Rescue teams are struggling to reach isolated places

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71082000/jpg/_71082113_f68463a7-0acd-416b-a341-84a49267d69e.jpg
Thousands of desperate people descended on a food warehouse in Alangalang on Tuesday to take whatever they could

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71080000/jpg/_71080859_019970385-1.jpg
More than 140,000 homes have been damaged by the typhoon

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Hundreds are queuing for relief goods including water and medicines

"Better co-ordination is needed, because we are seeing a lot of relief goods, medicines, equipment, coming in, but it's not reaching the people affected, thereby causing a sense of hopelessness and desperation in many of those who have survived and are now fleeing their homes, their municipalities, their locales, out of sheer desperation."

He said the damage to Tacloban was "so massive in scale and so extensive in our areas that we literally would have to rebuild from scratch".

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71080000/jpg/_71080579_71080578.jpg
Congressman Martin Romualdez, who represents the 1st District of Leyte: "There is desperation and we are losing hope"

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71065000/jpg/_71065307_71065306.jpg
"We thought it was our last day": Survivors talk to the BBC

"We just imagine it, our area, as a ground zero, as if a nuclear bomb had exploded above us."

Relief operations are being stepped up, but damage to transport links and continuing bad weather have hindered aid distribution.

The BBC's Jonathan Head in Tacloban - a city of 220,000 on Leyte island which is particularly badly affected - says residents are becoming angry at the lack of progress and increasing breakdown in security.

Planes are arriving at the airport, but bringing little in and only taking people out, and there is little sign of a co-ordinated relief operation, he says.

Philippine armed forces spokesman Ramon Zagala told the BBC teams were struggling to reach isolated places.

"Although we have a lot of helicopters at the moment, it's really a challenge for us to bring [aid] to all the places and [bring] the number of goods that are needed."

But Philippine Interior Minister Mar Roxas told the BBC that relief efforts were on track.

"Our first priorities were, number one, to establish law and order; number two, to bring food and water to the people; and, number three, to recover the cadaver bags," he said.

"[Now] law and order has been stabilised, the supply of food and water is beginning - I'm not saying that we're anywhere near it - [but it] is beginning to be stabilised... and now we are concentrating on recovery of cadavers as well as on the distribution of the food and the relief that is coming in."

On Tuesday the UN launched an appeal for $301m (£190m) to help survivors. It has already released $25m to meet immediate needs.

The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says 11.3 million people are in need of vital goods and services, because of factors such as lack of food, healthcare and access to education and livelihoods.

The UK's Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) has also launched an appeal.

US and British navy vessels are heading to the Philippines and several nations have pledged millions of dollars in aid.

Source:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24922492

Terpe

13th November 2013, 12:13

So where is the aid? - Jonathan Head - BBC News, Leyte

So where is the aid? That was the question on everyone's lips in the district of Pawing, outside Tacloban.

Nearly every house has either been flattened or left without roofs or windows. People are living amid the sodden debris that was once their homes.

They are wet, hungry, and increasingly angry. I watched them making the long trek into Tacloban in search of food, and returning empty-handed. One long queue outside a food warehouse quickly broke down into a free-for-all, people grabbing whatever they could.

The local government was pretty much wiped out by the typhoon. That's why the central government has taken over the running of Tacloban. But it is almost invisible. Without power or phone communications, people have no idea whether anything is being done for them.

The airport, while badly battered, is functioning. Planes come and go, several every hour. But they are not bringing much in, only taking people out. The Philippine army and police are very visible there, much less so in the rest of the city.

By day five of a disaster like this, you would expect to see some preparations for a scaled-up aid programme at the airport. There are still very few signs of that here. Instead, there are still corpses, lying uncollected, at the end of the runway.

Source:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24922492

tiger31

13th November 2013, 12:32

now iv,e just read that lots of prisoners have escaped from the local nick ,so now murderers,rapists etc are on the prowl to compound the peoples misery .The army really need to get a grip of stuff like this what a nightmare

Dedworth

13th November 2013, 13:19

Pete/London

13th November 2013, 13:51

Its terrible that it takes so long to get help on the ground.
There was a discussion on newsnight last night on this very subject and it was said that the aid agencies tend to compete with each other to be first on the scene and then just get in the way.
Apparently 40% of aid for Haiti was spent on luxury accommodation and expensive cars for the aid workers, and the people of Haiti were not given any input as to where the aid was to be distributed.

Terpe

13th November 2013, 14:18

Typhoon Haiyan: eight die in food stampede amid desperate wait for aid

Thousands storm rice warehouse in the devastated central Philippines while Haiyan relief effort flounders

Eight people have been killed in the typhoon-ravaged central Philippines after thousands of Haiyan survivors stormed a government-owned rice warehouse seeking food supplies.

The Philippines National Food Authority said police and soldiers stood by helpless as people streamed into the warehouse in Alangalang, Leyte province – an area where hunger and desperation are running high after Haiyan made landfall early on Friday morning, ravaging vast swaths of Leyte and Samar islands. The security forces could only watch as more than 100,000 sacks of rice were carried away.

The eight were crushed to death when a wall in the warehouse collapsed, spokesman Rex Estoperez told the Associated Press. Other rice warehouses were dotted around the region, he said, refusing to give their locations for security reasons.

The Philippines government has come under fire for failing to deliver aid adequately or quickly enough, with growing frustration in the hardest hit areas, such as Tacloban, the capital of Leyte province where dead bodies have piled up on the streets and residents have resorted to looting to find food.

A military official told the Guardian on Wednesday that the government was aiming to double its relief efforts within the next two days. Attempts to provide help were buoyed by the expected arrival of two extra US military C-130 planes and one additional Australian air force plane.

Three relief distribution points were being set up in the Leyte island towns of Tacloban, Guiuan and Ormoc, the official said, with the main aid effort operating out of neighbouring Cebu instead of Manila, the capital, which is 360 miles to the north.

More than 10,000 people are feared to have been killed in the Philippines due to Haiyan, most of them in Leyte province, with aid workers suggesting that number may rise significantly. As many as 29 municipalities have still not been reached due to impassable roads and downed telecommunications.

President Benigno Aquino III said on Tuesday that he believed the number killed to be far lower – around 2,500 – and told CNN that the 10,000 figure may have come from an "emotional" official, with government figures alleging that the death toll stands at 2,275. The UN has said more than 670,000 people have been displaced and a total of 11.3 million people directly affected by the super storm.

International relief efforts intensified with the launch of a UN appeal and the dispatch of American, British and Japanese troops to the affected regions. But minimal amounts of aid have reached the worst‑hit areas.

More than 3,000 people surged on to the tarmac of Tacloban airport on Tuesday morning in the hope of flying out on the two Philippine air force planes that had just arrived.

Babies and sick or elderly people were given priority but only a few hundred were able to leave. Others were held back by soldiers and police. Many had walked for hours and camped at the base overnight.

"I was pleading with the soldiers. I was kneeling and begging because I have diabetes," said Helen Cordial as she lay on a stretcher, shaking. "Do they want me to die in this airport? They are stone-hearted," she told the Associated Press.

Dean Smith, an Australian who has been living with his family near Palo, Leyte province, for the last five years, told the Guardian that he waited eight hours to be able to get one of the first commercial flights out of Tacloban to Cebu. On the way to the airport he said he saw "horrifying things that I know I have seen but my brain hasn't processed yet".

He described scenes of chaos in the city centre, where police were stealing money from the local cashpoints, people in cars were refusing to drive the injured to get help, and the bloated body of a man floating in dirty water was being gnawed at by a dog.

"What people have gone through, what they have seen – there is going to be a lot of post-traumatic stress after this event I assure you," he said shakily. "No one has ever seen anything like this."

Having arrived on Tuesday in Cebu, Smith was planning to stock up on food, medicine and water and take it back to his Palo home, where his wife, six children, a 92-year-old grandmother and a pregnant nanny were all desperately awaiting supplies. He departed for Tacloban early on Wednesday morning.

Domestic and international relief efforts were being hampered by wet weather, poor communications and damaged infrastructure, with aircraft only able to land in Tacloban during daylight hours because the air control tower had been destroyed by Haiyan. Unsubstantiated reports of aid convoys being attacked by hungry victims circulated, with the Telegraph reporting that communist rebels had been killed whilst trying to intercept a Red Cross convoy destined for the island of Samar.

Still, Corizon Soliman, secretary of the Philippine department of social welfare and development, said aid had so far reached a third of the city's 45,000 families.

However armed forces spokesman Ramon Zagala told the BBC that relief workers were struggling to deliver aid for a number of reasons.

"The area is very vast and the number of helicopters – although we have a lot of helicopters at the moment – it's really a challenge for us to bring [aid] to all the places and [bring] the number of goods that are needed."

The BBC quoted a Leyte official as saying that although relief goods like medicine and equipment were arriving into the province "it's just not reaching the people affected".

The UN released $25m (£15.7m) in emergency funds for shelter materials and household items, and for assistance with emergency health services, safe water supplies and sanitation.

The UN aid chief, Valerie Amos, launched an appeal for $300m as she arrived in Manila. "We have deployed specialist teams, vital logistics support and dispatched critical supplies but we have to do more and faster," she said.

The US, Britain, Japan, Australia and other nations have pledged tens of millions of dollars in immediate aid, and some businesses have also offered help: banking group HSBC announced a $1m (£630,000) cash donation.

In Tacloban shops were stripped of food and water by hungry residents. While some tents had arrived, the widespread damage left many people sleeping in the ruins of their homes or under shredded trees.

Military doctors at a makeshift clinic at the airport said they had treated about 1,000 people for cuts, bruises and deep wounds but did not have enough medical supplies.

"It's overwhelming," said Antonio Tamayo, an air force captain. "We need more medicine. We can't give anti-tetanus vaccine shots because we have none."

The typhoon flattened Basey, a seaside town in Samar province about six miles across a bay from Tacloban. About 2,000 people were missing there, its governor said. Rescue and relief workers were yet to reach many of the more remote areas.

"There are hundreds of other towns and villages stretched over thousands of kilometres that were in the path of the typhoon and with which all communication has been cut," said Natasha Reyes, emergency co-ordinator in the Philippines at Médecins Sans Frontières. "No one knows what the situation is like in these more rural and remote places, and it's going to be some time before we have a full picture."

Damage to communications left the armed forces struggling to reach local authorities and many officials were dead, missing or trying to protect their own families.

"Basically the only branch of government that is working here is the military," Ruben Guinolbay, a Philippine army captain, told Reuters in Tacloban. "That is not good. We are not supposed to take over government."

The interior secretary, Manuel Roxas, said on Tuesday that only 20 of Tacloban's 293 police had arrived for work. But he added: "Today we have stabilised the situation. There are no longer reports of looting. The food supply is coming in. Up to 50,000 food packs are coming in every day, with each pack able to feed up to a family of five for three days."

A team of British medical experts and the first consignment of aid from the UK was leaving for the Philippines, David Cameron said on Tuesday.

The UK surgical team, led by Anthony Redmond, Manchester University professor of international emergency medicine, includes three emergency physicians, two orthopaedic surgeons, a plastic surgeon, two accident and emergency nurses, a theatre nurse, two anaesthetists and one specialist physiotherapist.

The USS George Washington aircraft carrier, transporting about 5,000 sailors and more than 80 aircraft, plus four other US navy ships, should arrive in two to three days, the Pentagon said.

Britain's HMS Daring, a warship with equipment to make drinking water from seawater, and a military transport aircraft should arrive around the same time.

Japan is sending a team of 40 from its self-defence force.

Aquino has declared a state of national calamity, allowing the central government to release emergency funds more quickly and impose price controls.

Initial estimates of the cost of the damage vary widely, with a report from German-based CEDIM Forensic Disaster Analysis putting the total at anywhere from $8bn to $19bn.

Source:-
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/13/philippines-typhoon-food-stampede-aid

Terpe

13th November 2013, 14:28

I've just watched on TV as the first supplies of emergency aid get unloaded at Tacloban Airport to be distributed under appropriate security.

Desperate people will make desperate efforts to survive.
We should ask ourselves what we would do.

The unfortunate side effects are that aid agencies are unable to transport supplies by road and need to rely on air transportation until security can be settled down.

Looks like the huge efforts now begin. Those US V-22 Osprey's have made all the difference.

God speed the aid process

bigmarco

13th November 2013, 14:47

That doesn't make good reading. It's understandable that people are going to head for the warehouses if the food is not going to be transported to them.
It seems there's no shortage of help being offered but nobody seems able to coordinate it.
Seen a US Military spokesman from their Taskforce in Tacloban being interviewed and they did seem to have a plan and were getting organised for the surrounding areas with smaller aircraft and helicopters. Hopefully the situation will now start to improve.

grahamw48

13th November 2013, 17:11

Why hide the location of rice stores ?

The people need food now. If extra is taken it will filter down anyway. No good stacked up in some warehouse. :NoNo:

As for 'looting' food etc (NOT TVs) from damaged shops...what good is it left to rot ?

The people need supplies immediately, even if they belong to someone else. Insurance and compensation can be sorted out later. It's not like it's a riot situation. It's life or death.

stevewool

13th November 2013, 18:01

Desperate people will make desperate efforts to survive.
We should ask ourselves what we would do.

thats the question we all should ask ourselves, most would roll over and die to tell the truth, others would just wait with their hands out,

lordna

13th November 2013, 19:16

My wife , with the help of one of her friends and Facebook, managed to get in contact with her mother in Tacloban on Monday. They had no water or food and there with my wifes brother and 3 very young children all fortunately survived. We have heard from them today that they have now joined other family members in Abuyog which we understand wasn't as badly hit. So far we have no news of my wifes sister in Dulag which we are told was completly washed away....she lived there with her husband and 2 young children. Still hoping for good news.
Hopefully moving all the family together to Abuyog will be a good move as the situation in Tacloban was apparently absolutely intolerable and looked like getting worse with the NPA taking advantage of the situation (so i am told).

Arthur Little

13th November 2013, 19:53

Desperate people will make desperate efforts to survive.

:iagree: ... NO holds barred!

We should ask ourselves what we would do.

Hmm ... QUITE! :gp:!

thats the question we all should ask ourselves, most would roll over and die to tell the truth, others would just wait with their hands out

...............:yeahthat:! Like we witnessed all too frequently - almost every day, in fact (mainly kids :bigcry:) - throughout both periods I spent in the Phils in 2008/9. And that was in so~called "normal" circumstances.

:cwm24: ... AWFUL!

gWaPito

13th November 2013, 20:11

Thanks for letting us know lordna. The anxiety continues but at least her and brother can join other family members in safe surroundings. Let's hope and pray her sister can be found safe and sound

Regard
gWapito

Doc Alan

13th November 2013, 21:40

Thanks Lordna for taking the time to post. Our thoughts are with you and your loved ones. Please update us when you are able.

Terpe

13th November 2013, 21:56

Michael Parnham

13th November 2013, 22:56

What's this I hear, Philippine gov wanting taxes on donation boxes from Germany, is this true?

Rosie1958

13th November 2013, 23:09

alesypalsy

14th November 2013, 00:57

Good news for lordna! That's a relief,
I hope the others awaiting to hear from loved ones are not waiting much longer,
This event has moved me very much in the way I never felt before, and the brighter side is that it shows how much we love the Filipino people,
I hope you guys hear something soon

Arthur Little

14th November 2013, 02:46

What's this I hear, Philippine gov wanting taxes on donation boxes from Germany, is this true?

......................... :yeahthat:'s true, Michael ... DISGRACEFUL! :cwm23:

gWaPito

14th November 2013, 03:18

......................... :yeahthat:'s true, Michael ... DISGRACEFUL! :cwm23:

The United Nations have got these folks weighed up....It's under their instruction The Philippine Gov are to have no involvement with the relief distribution that they've just sent in on 5 U.S Marines C130 planes............Their cards are marked, alright:NoNo:

Dedworth

14th November 2013, 19:27

Me & florsel have friends that live in tacloban we have tried to contact them but to no avail we are praying it's becauseof the loss of power & phone lines down it's very worrying times

Have you managed to contact your friends Stevie ? - Mrs D comes from Bicol thankfully not too serious around those parts but they were without power & phones until Tuesday.

stevie c

14th November 2013, 20:53

Have you managed to contact your friends Stevie ? - Mrs D comes from Bicol thankfully not too serious around those parts but they were without power & phones until Tuesday.

Not as yet mark they are from guiaun we have heard it is almost total devastation thete but ee are hoping we will have some news soon

Terpe

16th November 2013, 19:19

UK says several Britons missing after Haiyan

Several British nationals are missing following the typhoon that has killed thousands in the Philippines, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Saturday, November 16.

"The foreign secretary confirmed that a number of British nationals remained unaccounted for," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

A ministry spokesman declined to specify how many Britons were missing.

In a phone call to his Philippine counterpart Albert del Rosario, Hague offered his condolences in the wake of the devastating Super Typhoon Yolanda (international codename: Haiyan) of November 8 and asked for "every possible assistance" to be given to Britons caught up in the disaster, the ministry said.

Britain's Channel Four News had on Friday, November 15, reported that British pharmacist Colin Bembridge, 61, had gone missing with his Filipino partner Maybelle and their 3-year-old daughter while visiting relatives near the now-devastated city of Tacloban.

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Saturday announced that Britain was providing a further £30 million ($48 million, 36 million euros) to help the relief effort, in addition to the £23 million already pledged.

A British warship, HMS Daring, is due to arrive at the Philippines' Cebu island on Sunday, November 17, after making its way from Singapore.

Helicopter carrier HMS Illustrious – the largest ship in the British navy – was also due to be deployed along with a Royal Air Force C-17 transport aircraft.

Authorities in the Philippines have put the official death toll at 3,633, with 1,179 people missing and nearly 12,500 injured.

The UN has put the number of dead at 4,460 and said Saturday that 2.5 million people still "urgently" required food assistance

Source:-
http://www.rappler.com/move-ph/issues/disasters/typhoon-yolanda/43903-uk-britons-missing-haiyan

Terpe

16th November 2013, 19:24

14 Palawan towns under state of calamity

http://static.rappler.com/images/typhoon-yolanda-coron-palawan-20131109-002.jpg
Typhoon Yolanda's wrath in Coron, Palawan

The last leg of Super Typhoon Yolanda's (Haiyan's) destructive journey was in Busuanga, Palawan.

There, the typhoon made its 6th and last landfall Friday night, November 8, before it left the country in the afternoon of Saturday, November 9. (READ: Yolanda goes 'island hopping,' makes 6 landfalls)

A full week after it exited, Palawan's Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (PDRRMO) released a report saying the province's Sangguniang Panlalawigan placed 14 towns under a state of calamity:
•Agutaya
•Araceli
•Busuanga
•Cagayancillo
•Coron
•Culion
•Cuyo Dumaran
•El Nido
•Linapacan
•Magsaysay
•Roxas
•San Vicente
•Taytay

According to a report by state-run Philippine News Agency (PNA), the resolution that placed the towns under a state of calamity also pegged the number of affected families at around 20,308.

Through the resolution, Palawan Gov Jose Alvarez may tap into the province's calamity fund to start rehabilitation in these towns. But even without the calamity fund, help has been pouring in for the Palaweños.

The PNA reported that foreign tourists and expatriates who consider Palawan as their home came to the PDRRMO command center to bring relief goods.

Private entities are also pitching in. PDRRMO executive director Gilbert Baaco received from Malampaya Foundation Inc. P1 million-worth of food packs for the Calamianes Islands after they earlier sent relief goods to Coron.

The provincial government's employees association also began its own relief drive.

“The compassion of the people for the Palaweños, who were devastated by Yolanda is even overwhelming than the strong winds and heavy rains that slammed the northernmost island towns,” Baaco said.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council on Saturday, November 16, said the damage of Typhoon Yolanda which wreaked havoc in the Visayas now stands at P9.46 billion. The number of casualties stood at 3,633 as of early morning.

Three days after Yolanda hit Palawan, relief goods already started arriving in Coron. Earlier reports said at least 6 died in the town alone.

Source:-
http://www.rappler.com/move-ph/issues/disasters/typhoon-yolanda/43901-palawan-towns-state-calamity

Terpe

16th November 2013, 19:34

Philippines typhoon: Aid effort gathers pace

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71155000/jpg/_71155236_71155230.jpg
US Navy helicopters are now delivering relief supplies to many victims

The international aid effort in parts of the Philippines devastated by Typhoon Haiyan is starting to have a major impact, with tens of thousands of victims of receiving supplies.

Medical teams are operating in the worst-affected areas and US helicopters flying aid to isolated settlements.

The UN says it and its partners hope to provide enough aid for six months.

Haiyan, which hit eight days ago, has killed more than 3,600 people and left about half a million homeless.

Patrick Fuller of the International Federation of the Red Cross told the Associated Press news agency: "At the moment we are ramping up a major relief effort and the supplies are coming in."

Mr Fuller - who is in Tacloban, one of the worst-hit areas - said: "We're setting up an emergency response hospital here, water and sanitation units." However, he added that people in affected areas would need long-term "support with rebuilding".

Both the Red Cross and the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said they would have mobile surgical units up and running in Tacloban by the end of the weekend.

US Navy helicopters have been dropping food, water and other supplies from the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, which arrived off the coast on Thursday.

The carrier is also expanding search-and-rescue operations. The US military said it would send about 1,000 more troops along with additional ships and aircraft to join the aid effort.

Britain will give an extra £30m ($50m) in emergency aid, bringing UK assistance to £50m, Prime Minister David Cameron announced. The UK Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) said donations from the public had reached £33m.

Although a huge international aid effort is under way, widespread infrastructure damage is hampering efforts to distribute it to some areas.

Desperate survivors are still trying to leave the coastal city of Ormoc, 105 km (65 miles) west of Tacloban, Reuters news agency reports.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71157000/jpg/_71157954_71157953.jpg
Typhoon Haiyan was one of the most powerful typhoons ever to hit land, leaving thousands dead and hundreds of thousands homeless.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71157000/jpg/_71157958_020016048-1.jpg
The city of Tacloban has been virtually flattened

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71157000/jpg/_71157960_020015853-1.jpg
US soldiers are now flying in supplies to the Tacloban area

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/71158000/jpg/_71158123_020015454-1.jpg
Hundreds of thousands of people have been made homeless by the storm

Philippine Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon Soliman acknowledged in a radio interview that the national relief response had been too slow to reach many areas.

"We will double our efforts to distribute relief goods because we've been hearing complaints that a lot of people have yet to receive relief goods," she said.

About 11 million people have been affected by Typhoon Haiyan, according to UN estimates.

It was one of the most powerful storms ever recorded on land, with winds exceeding 320km/h (200 mph) unleashing massive waves. Tacloban's airport was left in ruins.

Health experts have warned that the worst-affected areas are entering a peak danger period for the spread of infectious diseases.

The Philippines National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said that as of 10:00 GMT on Saturday, 3,637 people had been reported dead, 12,501 injured and 1,186 missing. The death toll is expected to rise as further assessments are made.

Source:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24972707

joebloggs

17th November 2013, 18:30

http://www.itv.com/news/update/2013-11-17/new-video-shows-power-of-typhoon-as-it-hit-philippines/

the first sea wave :cwm24:

Terpe

17th November 2013, 19:30

Incredible Video clip that joe.....unstoppable power of mother nature.

Filmed by an aid worker.

Did you know that hundreds of voluteer aid workers went out to the Philippine islands just before the Super-typhoon made landfall just to be on-the-ground to organise help the aftermath?
Brave wonderful folks.

Terpe

17th November 2013, 21:34

‘We gave them food and they cried’

http://static.rappler.com/images/tinago-evacuation-center.jpg
Once hungry evacuees are now well fed at the evacuation center in the Tinago sports complex in Cebu City. But it is still unclear how long evacuees can stay in gyms and pension houses

When Tinago Barangay (village) Captain Joel Garganera first set up the evacuation center at the sports complex here 5 days ago, he saw something that troubled him deeply.

“They came here. They said they’re hungry. And when you give them food, they cry. I wonder why.”

“Later, I understand they lined up there for two days just to get a ride on a C130. No food to eat, just water. Before that, they walked 10 kilometers to get to the airport from their homes, some in wheelchairs with all those bruises. It’s so sad,” he told Rappler on Sunday, November 17.

Garganera was referring to the 1,000 evacuees from Samar and Leyte who fled their home provinces in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), the world’s strongest typhoon that hit central Philippines on November 8.

The typhoon killed 3,681 people as of last count, and flattened entire cities and towns, leaving residents of Eastern Visayas homeless and many fleeing with only the clothes on their back.

Now in Cebu, the evacuees are in a much better condition. Garganera said there is no shortage of food, water and medical care, with the city government, private donors, and foreign groups welcoming the busloads of victims upon their arrival on board military ships and planes.

In Tinago, barangay officials and volunteers try to make the evacuees feel at home. There is a playhouse for children, 24/7 medical desk, professionals conducting debriefing, mats and pillows, 10 toilets, regular meals and snacks, and this weekend, even a medical mission from a Taiwanese group, and a party organized by students.

The complex houses 300 and is not overcrowded, with the new evacuees brought to other centers.

“There’s a very big difference. You see the smile on their face. There was one school teacher. I didn’t know she was a teacher because she wore the same dress for 6 days and I only found out when she got new clothes and she began talking.”

Garganera added, “If you wear the same clothes, the same underwear, somehow it affects your behavior, your personality, but once you are dressed up already, you try to show the real you. It’s bringing back dignity.”

http://static.rappler.com/images/joel-garganera.jpg
Joel Garganera, barangay captain of Tinago in Cebu City, says it is uncertain how long the evacuation centers will operate as the exodus from Haiyan-hit provinces continues 9 days after the disaster

Indefinite stay

With Cebu’s strategic location, Garganera said it is natural for the country’s de facto second capital to be a transit point for the victims. Cebu is located west of Samar and Leyte, the hardest hit provinces.

The barangay captain said there are now 5 evacuation centers in Cebu City, and others in Mandaue City in Cebu province. Besides barangay gyms, the centers consist of pension houses and government offices.

Many of the evacuees are women and children.

“Many of the men are left behind to secure their loved ones, to look for their missing relatives,” Garganera said.

Nine days after the disaster, the exodus has not stopped. While evacuees are welcome, Garganera said he does not know until when the barangay and the city government will provide the manpower, electricity, transportation and other resources to keep the evacuation centers going.

While some evacuees proceed to their relatives’ homes or head to other areas, others have no place to go.

“The big question is for how long they’re gonna stay here. That I do not know. I would say indefinite,” he said.

Cebu City Mayor Mike Rama and Philippine Red Cross Chairman Richard Gordon have announced a plan to convert a building at the South Road Properties into a Red Cross tent city.

The Cebu Provincial Government is also looking into a similar arrangement. Provincial Board Member Miguel Magpale told Rappler he was among those Governor Hilario Davide III tasked to look for a property owned by the province for a tent city.

“We are considering different locations. We do not want the evacuees to be exposed to bad elements, to go into drugs or be prone to prostitution. At the same time, the understanding is it will only be temporary because the province also has its own problem of homeless people. We have to balance that,” Magpale said.

Magpale said there are now 3,000 evacuees estimated in Cebu, and their stay can extend to about a year.

“There are a lot of factors to consider like putting up plumbing and electricity but the national government has said it will shoulder the cost,” he said.

Secretary to the Cabinet Jose Rene Almendras has said that the government is sure that the evacuees will eventually go back to Samar and Leyte as it promises to rehabilitate the devastated areas.

Still, some evacuees no longer have plans of returning.

Only consolation

For now, Garganera said he and his barangay will just do their best to accommodate the victims.

“We have to make them feel secure. We have to provide them what they need and somehow give them hope and try to help them in bringing their loved ones here and their families. Somehow, to help them get a new start.”

The barangay captain said as much as possible, he tries to distance himself from the evacuees so he does not get too emotionally attached, and is able to run the operations well.

“When some of them are leaving the evacuation center, they cry. They embrace you and they salute you. ‘Thank you, sir.’ That’s my only consolation. I just think, ‘Good. We are doing the right thing.’”

Source:-
http://www.rappler.com/move-ph/issues/disasters/typhoon-yolanda/43956-haiyan-exodus-cebu-evacuation